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Sky to buy Amstrad for £125m
Broadcaster BSkyB has struck a deal to buy television set-top box maker Amstrad for about £125m.
Amstrad, which was founded by star of BBC1's The Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar, supplies about 30% of the set-top box devices for Sky.
Orders from the broadcaster made up about 75% of Amstrad's sales in the year to the end of June.
Sky said that the deal meant they could now design their products in-house and be more innovative.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6923517.stm
Amstrad, which was founded by star of BBC1's The Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar, supplies about 30% of the set-top box devices for Sky.
Orders from the broadcaster made up about 75% of Amstrad's sales in the year to the end of June.
Sky said that the deal meant they could now design their products in-house and be more innovative.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6923517.stm
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Hopefully they will be able to sort out the reliability and finally launch the next generation Sky+ and HD box.
They'll still have the free to air market and the hard drive recorders. Haven't Pace enjoyed a recent boom in the market? You are right though, not looking good for them in relation to this.
Source and more http://media.guardian.co.uk/city/story/0,,2138370,00.html
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=631549
If Pace lose out on making Sky/Sky+/SkyHD boxes, will they turn to FTA satellite boxes?
If eventually C4 and C5 become FTA on satellite then there might well be a significant market for FTA satellite boxes, particularly PVR and/or HD versions that let you use the PVR or HD functions without a subscription.
That in turn would put a bit of pressure on Sky and particularly on their lower end subscription packages.
Sky aren't the only fish in the sea for Pace, apart from making FTA stuff they also make boxes for DirecTV in the US, which has twice the number of subscribers as Sky. Sure losing Sky will have hurt them but its not doom and gloom for Pace.
My brother had Sky+ installed on Sat, And the Sky Engineer said Sky have signed a deal with Sony to do HD boxes..? don't know how true this is but he did seem to know what he was on about.
As for the amstrad deal will this mean the amstrad boxes will improve from now on?
They have anyway, Amstrad PVR3's latest batch is very good. Just in time for this take over!
Why have you linked back to this thread?
The Threads have been merged since that Post
(Duplicate starting with what is now Post #6)
I have never had an Amstrad - only Had Pace Sky/Sky+ and Thomson HD, but you only have to read the thread on Amstrad & Thomson historically to see the dissatisfaction with them compared with Pace.
So my intial reaction was 'hope when my Thomson HD packs up I don't get an Amstrad replacement' , but reading some postings here perhaps there has been a recent upswing in reliablity etc with Amstrad boxes so :sleep:
Of course you just know it'll stop working a few days after the warranty runs out...
My Amstrad PVR was flawless for the 3 years i had it. Only 3 failed recordings, same hard drive as my Uncles' Pace PVR 2, just as quick, and with slightly better picture quality.
In terms of the hardware design it is a pretty standard. ST Microelectronics 'STB on a chip', power supply, memory, hardware interface electronics, hard disk, tuners, etc.
It is down to the firmware being rock solid that usually gives a box a bad name. If all development is in house the loop is much quicker between the guys doing the hardware/firmware and the people who did the spec and the in house testers.
i.e. if a tester has a probem he could ultimately go direct to the people who designed the circuit board if need be rather than going through offical customer/supplier channels to narrow the fault down.
I did wonder what that bond was going to be used for when they posted the press release a few months back..................and why the Amstrad HD box hadn't been launched sooner. Hopefully it does make sense and reliability becomes true reliability from a Sky product rather than pure pot luck.
Sky Own the EPG
Sky Own the Channels
Sky now own the STB
It is like a completly self contained sky empire
to be honest i wouldn't be surprised if that was there plan from day 1.
and don't forget that now most sky installers work for sky now and not 3rd party install companies. lol
Sky own only a small proportion of the Channels on 28E.