Originally Posted by thecolonel:
“the trouble is what channels could they add, you can bet sky would put a stop to all that, what we need is channels to come out in support of freesat, like that guy said the other day, when he called for more hd channels to come to freesat, at the moment all freesat has is potential, hopefully the potential will be realised”
Well the number one problem stopping that Colonel in my opinion is Freesat's positioning in the market place - its just a inferior version of Freeview right now - inferior in content and inferior in PQ. Hardly attractive to channels and becoming less attractive to users.
Now if the BBC Trust were to wake up to themselves, realise that people who can't get Freeeview only make up a small proportion of Freesat's audience and that its become something not originally envisaged and were to then decide to take advantage of Freesats bandwidth to position it as a quality alternative to Freeview in terms of PQ and HD content, then both products could sit in the market place and appeal to differing audiences on a cost basis.
Freesat would also become attractive to channel providers and advertisers as the quality alternative to Freeview.
There's place in the market for both Freeview and Freesat but they need to play both platforms to their strengths.
Max Freesat out with HD content, HD channels (obviously beyond their control but subject to channel providers becoming interested, has the potential to carry more HD channels that Freeview) and PQ, and max Freeview out in terms of cheap cost and easy availability. That way Freesat becomes the platform for enthusiasts and those who simply can't get Freeview and Freeview becomes the cheap easy option to suit the masses who aren't bothered about HD content or PQ but just want cheap easy to receive traditional style tv reception.