The Straw and the Camel's Back

Genghis

The Story to date - A Worrying Trend?

Looking back over the past weeks, there are a number of disturbing trends taking place -

- E4 BB coverage not being interactive (perhaps solely for reasons to do with Irish 'opt-out' ads)
- World Cup interactive coverage being turned off mid-tournament (not just for repeated matches which may have involved licence issues, but for all bbc-i services)
- Wimbledon without interactivity
- The only interactive element Sky seems to be working on are the sort of services that really only generate money for Sky - voting, gaming, e-mail, etc.
- Standard features in the UK such as series link have not worked in Ireland (again maybe due to seperate adverts)
- Some channels (particularly BBC radio) which are free-to-air and without subscription / viewing card disappear when you put in your Irish Card.

The Role of Sky Ireland

Since Sky Ireland was set up I conclude that their brief has been
a) to increase revenue from the market (direct adverts, interactive, box office, etc)
b) even at the cost of service (reduce interactive services, possibly restricting new commercial channels (ITV), etc.) and
c) without any plan to make direct investment in the product (the prospect of dedeicated Sky programming / content for Ireland is at this stage a pipe-dream, for example)

At the same time, Chorus and NTL are suddenly confident of their C4 and ITV service, to the point that they have begun playing this as their trump card (have they gained some kind of agreement with these channels?).

But Does Anyone Really Care?

Now, while we have all been concerned about many of these issues and more for many months, we still remain a small number of 'above average enthusiast' viewers. There has been no general outcry about the loss of services, or the prospect of no ITV / C4. You don't read in the Evening Herald about Sky ripping the Irish off, nobody rings Gerry Ryan or Joe Duffy to complain, these are not yet national issues, though they affect up to 300K homes.

When Will Sky Go Too Far

My question is this - When do you think Sky will go too far and receive a backlash from the Irish population? (Or, will this ever happen?)

And secondly, looking slightly further ahead, what might be the best way for any future concern be voiced and felt at Sky.

For example, I presume if 10,000 people downgraded to the most basic package, or 20,000 people cancelled direct debit mandates, then Sky might listen up. But will there ever be the strength of feeling to prompt this sort of action?

Oh, yeah. Rant is Over!

John Q

I totally agree, over the last couple of years once sky got our subs they didn't seem to mind how channels are being downgrading their service to the people in the republic I cancelled my sub to sky movies when UTV went off the add channels option and I cancelled my sub to sky sports when Big brother interactive and the world cup interactive went off and I told them exactly why I was cancelling too.

Genghis,
I completely agree with you.
Sky are delivering what people never had-guaranteed top quality reception of 100's of channels with stereo sound-so people basically don't care.

They can turn on the tv and wham,theres something to watch(although,in my honest opinion at times, to quote Bruce..."57 ch's and nothing on..":rolleyes: a lot of the stuff is pure drivvle, with the possible exception of men and motors:D )
UTV,ch4 and interactive don't seem to matter to the masses

Sky are in it for the money-pure and simple, thats what you get when you depend on a foreign provider of services.
Theres nothing wrong with being in it for the money , by the way.
The fact that it's there for the taking in ROI like candy from the baby,at the moment means we have a service from Sky.
But being given a second class service relative to the UK, just so more money can be creamed off to a foreign country is a bit of an insult in my opinion:(
mm

carrolls

Well said all, but I also think Genghis is right when he says
there is not enough backlash from people in the Republic.
The best way to get your own back against BBC/Sky is to get an FTV card, downgrade to the lowest package and cancel your subscription when your year is up.
You will still be getting a pretty good choice, especially when you can also switch to the terrestrial Irish channels on analogue.

Only problem there is though...most haven't heard of the BBC card and unfortunately don't care!
They like the existing sky service.
It's the way this country has gone-just look at the rise in the cost of services since the introduction of the Euro being talked about this morning.Theres no outcry because people don't care, or at least it seems that way.
Similarily the govt. won't stand up and take notice of these things as theres nothing in it for them.

If sky were regulated here, perhaps we would get some commitment to a similar service to the UK.
There are some who say that bringing Sky under a regulator would do harm.

Surely not as already services via Sky digital are dissapearing, how much worse could it get?

It's unlikely that sky would withdraw-too much money here for them.

Also regarding BBC cards, I think the blind eye currently being turned to Irish BBC cards would be opened and the door shut, if demand suddenly went up by tens of thousands.
No doubt with a lot of people through a lack of understanding of the process, giving the game away whilst ordering the card.
mm

carrolls

But for existing FTV card holders, they can't send a signal down to cancel them, because as far as we are concerned, we are living in the UK.
It would be a logistical and financial nightmare for Sky to cancel all 1-2 million existing FTV cards and ex-sub cards and bring out new ones.

bucks73

It would be a logistical and financial nightmare for Sky to cancel all 1-2 million existing FTV cards and ex-sub cards and bring out new ones.

And even if they did after a while the new ones would be for sale on ebay and the process would just start again.

Unfortunately, it might not be as clearcut as that.
For instance, one simple thing they could do is insist that BBC carded boxes phone home.
Alternatively, for rights reasons of course, they could insist that, licence payers who want a bbc card would have to give their UK social insurance number.
Or worse they could insist that the licence is paid by direct debit through a UK bank account.
They could also limit each UK household to one card which theuy don't at present

Thats just for starters if they wanted to get snotty about it.
mm

telecinesk

Sky are milking the irish republic customers.Why dosent someone at home (eire) get onto some mouthy journalist and provoke mr Sky to justify the piss poor service on the radio.
Dont know if the next comment is appropriate but wasnt there some EU directive forcing Mr NDS to make a Videoguard cam available to CI receivers.Half the battle with Sky is the sh receivers. I thought there was some thingy forcing NDS to comply to this. Sky are a monopoly in Eire, this should be investigated in terms of value at least>
Right enuf, Im off to my FTV card now.
30c here in Austria by the way.