I am gutted with Sky and its going to get alot worse!!

Chong

Hello everybody,

Im writing to you cause i am absolutely dejected after a phone call i made tonight to Sky. I rang to ask for a reason why bb interactive and world cup interactive on bbc are unavailable to us. First of all with bbc world cup interactive, the person informed that she had recieved a memo from sky head honcho's informing her and other sky staff that as of yesterday we the Irish would no longer recieve world cup interactive anymore as a result of issuing and broadcasting rights implicated by the BCI and Irish government,

NOW THEN ladies and gentleman let me deal you the body blow, the lennox lewis knock-out punch she said as of the end of this month all ROI customers will no longer recieve any bbc channels as result of breach of contract has occured with BBC. She said many of the irish customers will already be out the bbc service.

Now Then i enquired about the BB interactive service and why are without it. On this particular topic she said it wasnt there fault but all blame is on channel 4 according to her and into bargain e4 for haves no further plans to rectify this situation.
I informed her that if we recieve nothing but Irish adverts on E4 why are we not entitled to the 4 live feeds on big brother. I also informed that channel 4 also transmits Irish adverts on the chorus package but we on the sky package cant even get a basic channel4 package. She as a result of my information boggled and couldnt why are allowed watch channel4 on our sky package.

Now I asked about Itv and why we didnt recieve this and will we ever recieve this. She informed me that she couldnt understand why were blocked from watching the afore mentioned channel, so i said i suppose its because we dont pay your tv license in the uk but she informed that ITV dosent come under their tv license as they are funded by advertising and advertising companies.

Now and finally i quizzed her about when we will recieve sky active she informed me that it was supposed to be launched in early may but was delayed to the end of this month but it looks uncertain whether it will launch this month either as there is not enough interest in it and if launched it will be very limited.


So there you go my friends so if u have read this thoroughly you see why feel dejected.

byte

Originally posted by big willy
NOW THEN ladies and gentleman let me deal you the body blow, the lennox lewis knock-out punch she said as of the end of this month all ROI customers will no longer recieve any bbc channels as result of breach of contract has occured with BBC. She said many of the irish customers will already be out the bbc service.

She has got to be kidding?! Right??? Jesus! She's gotta be. If correct, I will seriously consider telling Sky where to stick their service.

irishgeo

I hope they are. I would be totally mad. The BCI are typical irish goverment controlled rubbish. Sticking their noses in where its not wanted. Just like an Taisce down the country here.


I pay for the BBC and if its taken away will i get a descreased sub.

I hope they are talking crap. I wonder if i can ring them now.

byte

After 10mins waiting, I finally got thru to CS and the guy on other end was unaware of BBC being removed from ROI. He disappeared to speak to someone else and came back with same answer. So hopefully, he's right. Must admit, I'm a bit worried!

irishgeo

I have just been on to the BBC Customer service line and they said the reason the BBC World Cup Interactive service was removed was because we dont pay a licensce fee and that the service was only for licensce fee payers.
i tried to mention to her about the increased sub we got which was to pay for the BBC but she was having none of it.

The Gopher

No worries lads-sky customer services know jack ****e about anything-some have been known to not know what an epg was.Serious!

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by irishgeo
they said the reason the BBC World Cup Interactive service was removed was because we dont pay a licensce fee and that the service was only for licensce fee payers.
i tried to mention to her about the increased sub we got which was to pay for the BBC but she was having none of it.

i hate those kind of answers. i would have thought BBC1 and BBC2 were only intended for UK license fee payers too. it must be a real miracle that we get those. out of interest, does anyone know how much the BBC get from Irish Sky subscribers every year?

telecinesk

"ROI customers will no longer recieve any bbc channels as result of breach of contract has occured with BBC. She said many of the irish customers will already be out the bbc service. ""

Erm, what breach of contract? ]

I hope this isnt true. Anyone want a job as a sky operator this month????
Someone should bother an upstart journalist and get them to grill Mark Deering or whoever on the radio. A damn good grilling is in order>>

Theyre really taking the piss if theyre having to pull bbc despite one pays for it in ROI land..

Tarabuses

I would imagine that the contract mentioned is the rights to broadcast the World Cup. BBC would not have these rights for the Republic of Ireland. Why interactive should go rather than the entire coverage is a mystery.

Could this be a reaction to whoever or whatever is blocking RTE from NI (and the whole UK for that matter)? I don't think a situation could exist forever wherby UK stations broadcasting here could be ignored.

Of course it is a serious setback, but also one of the consequences of digital tv. Analogue cannot be blocked in this way which is why we will continue to receive UK channels on cable.

However my fear is that, as digital advances, not only will rights become more and more of an issue, but so will the cost of viewing since we can be charged for each programme we view.

Well just to re-state what I said in the other BBCi thread...

This is what you get when , you are using a Foreign digital platform provider.
I doubt if many T.D's Know much about digital TV or what on earth BBCi is??
Thats why we don't have an RTÉ i service-because there is no initiative in the department of communications.There is no priority for it and what you have now is the most you will ever get, probably.

It's fairly legitimate of the BBC not to want to spend the UK licence fee on providing extra services to the ROI free of charge.
their equivalent of the public accounts committee would skin them!
It costs the BBC nothing to direct an Irish digibox to their text service and to the news and sport BBCi
But it would cost them in terms of rights payments for any extras not cleared by the agreement (and extra sub we pay) that got us 214 and 215 in the first place.

mm

byte

Yup, I think you have summed it up right, madman. At least we can still get BBCi Text

robert muldoon

I agree with Telecinesk- its about time Mark Deering(Sky ROI) made a statement about all this and other issues, there are far too many conflicting statements comming from different quarters- if BBC goes there will be war and people will want their money back.Rupert Murdoch does not like bad publicity, i think we have an interesting few weeks ahead- We need clarification from somebody in ROI,half the people you talk to in the UK dont have a bulls notion or interest whats happening in Ireland, so c'mon Mark, tell us whats happening!!

icdg

I'm rather skeptical of the information you have recieved...Sky (and other UK) customer service representatives have been shown before to be ill informed about things like this...

The BCI only has juristiction over channels uplinked from the Republic of Ireland. It would have no role in regard to Sky.

It seems even more and more likely that the removal of World Cup Interactive was ultimately FIFA's doing...

Its' known that the Irish government are no fans of Sky...but we've yet to hear a definitive statement from new communications minister Dermot Ahern on the matter. Don't forget there is still the threat of the ODTR's licencing off Sky's frequencies to content with...

Sky have over 200,000 subscribers, most of whom picked up the service after the BBC joined, this would be a rather large portion of the electorate to annoy, even if it is another five years until the general election.

speedfreak

dunno if ye remember but a couple of months ago I posted that a chorus rep called to my door and when we told him we had SKY digi he said that was a pity but u cant get it in all rooms, no ITV etc etc. Usual Chorus salesman crap. But as a parting shot he said 'Oh and BBC are coming off soon as well'. Coincidence? No smoke without fire....

robert muldoon

If this was a rights issue with BBC/ BSkyB, I think the plug would have been pulled a long time ago, I am hoping its just a world cup rights problem. I have sent an email to BSkyB this am and I will post reply when I get one