[stej86]

Just seen this on the BT Website;

"From 14th September 2012 ESPN, Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 add-ons will only be sold to Vision customers who are within a BT Infinity broadband enabled area."

http://www.productsandservices.bt.co...tv/tv-packages

So looks like ADSL users will be loosing Sky Sports / ESPN.

Not good news for the Vision service or BT's existing Sky Sports customers who cant get infinity in there area.

[joshua_welby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stej86

Just seen this on the BT Website;

"From 14th September 2012 ESPN, Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 add-ons will only be sold to Vision customers who are within a BT Infinity broadband enabled area."

http://www.productsandservices.bt.co...tv/tv-packages

So looks like ADSL users will be loosing Sky Sports / ESPN.

Not good news for the Vision service or BT's existing Sky Sports customers who cant get infinity in there area.

I do not think it is going IPTV as you still would need to pay the £10 fee for the viewing card

[stej86]

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshua_welby

I do not think it is going IPTV as you will still need to pay the £10 fee for the viewing card

If it is not going IPTV then why can new customers only order it if they are in a BT infinity fibre area?

[joshua_welby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stej86

If it is not going IPTV then why can new customers only order it if they are in a BT infinity fibre area?

Not sure

One possible reason is to migrate people who want Sky Sports and ESPN on to Infinity first so that BT can make more money out of them

ESPN is still Free if you take the Sky Sports package

Sky Sports News is not available until BT Vision goes IPTV then things could change

[1andrew1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stej86

Just seen this on the BT Website;

"From 14th September 2012 ESPN, Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 add-ons will only be sold to Vision customers who are within a BT Infinity broadband enabled area."

http://www.productsandservices.bt.co...tv/tv-packages

So looks like ADSL users will be loosing Sky Sports / ESPN.

Not good news for the Vision service or BT's existing Sky Sports customers who cant get infinity in there area.

Great find.

What's interesting is what they don't say, ie:
* You don't have to have Infinity to get these channels, you just have to be in an Infinity-enabled area.
* Nothing about existing users in ADSL-only areas.

This suggests that the service will still be delivered over DTT for some time yet but BT does not want to get any more customers who will be unable to receive the service via Infinity.

We already know a few things are in the offing on the BT Vision/YouView front, this is another clue!

[1andrew1]

Looking at the website this change has come into effect now, not from 14 September. But more importantly, you don't need to have Infinity to get the sports channels, you just have to be in an Infinity-enabled area.

So I think a more accurate title would be "Sky Sports and ESPN now only sold to customers in Infinity-enabled areas"

[Locksmith]

Bugger I was going to sign up tomorrow after I'd cancelled my existing sky sports package.
I went through the online sign up process and despite me not being in an infinity area it still let me choose Sky sports though.

[promo-only]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

So I think a more accurate title would be "Sky Sports and ESPN now only sold to customers in Infinity-enabled areas"

Nail on the head with that one I think. It's clearly them gearing up for the big YouView push because it's already been guessed many times that the IPTV channels will be Infinity only so instead of taking new Vision customers they're making sure everybody is eligible to go straight on the YouView list.

Doesn't say a thing about existing BT Vision customers so I guess their service will remain the same... but it just won't get much more exciting because YouView will be taking priority.

I guess a BT announcement isn't too far off.

[promo-only]

Just noticed that their standard line rental goes up to £15.45 in January. Wonder if they're trying to force the hand of people to take the line rental saver option and pay upfront because it seems like a far better deal if you can afford it.

[stej86]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locksmith

Bugger I was going to sign up tomorrow after I'd cancelled my existing sky sports package.
I went through the online sign up process and despite me not being in an infinity area it still let me choose Sky sports though.

As long as you sign up before 14/09/2012 you can get sky sports on bt vision while not being in an infinity area

[Locksmith]

Took the plunge and ordered it this morning. Hope they don't pull the plug on dtt transmision of Skysports in the future!

[daniel99]

and from January prices will go up

[pete taylor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locksmith

Took the plunge and ordered it this morning. Hope they don't pull the plug on dtt transmision of Skysports in the future!

I think it's the intention of BT to deliver all their programs via the internet.

Could take a few years, but it will happen.

[Locksmith]

I'm hoping for at least 12 months before they do as i'll be £60 better off than remaining with topup tv. And if bt could deliver a fast enough BB in the future I won't have a problem but at the moment with 3.2mbs I'm not expecting vision to be that great but I do not want buffering watching live footie, just imagine that

[d'@ve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pete taylor

I think it's the intention of BT to deliver all their programs via the internet.

Could take a few years, but it will happen.

Interesting thread and announcement. I'm holding off until we have the Youview announcement but interestingly, there is a guaranteed minimum service speed of 15Mbps on Infinity IIRC, which is fast enough if reliable for one HD TV channel at a time at broadcast specifications. However...

The problems will come with multiple home users all watching different HD programmes at the same time (more than one YV box), as some Infinity users would then have bandwidth issues unless HD over internet is compressed much more than broadcast TV, and of course, it is. So broadcast TV will remain as part of their service for a very long time yet I think, as the quality will be better.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this develops but it's easy to see why they want to limit Youview/Vision to Infinity areas.

[pete taylor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by d'@ve

Interesting thread and announcement. I'm holding off until we have the Youview announcement but interestingly, there is a guaranteed minimum service speed of 15Mbps on Infinity IIRC, which is fast enough if reliable for one HD TV channel at a time at broadcast specifications. However...

The problems will come with multiple home users all watching different HD programmes at the same time (more than one YV box), as some Infinity users would then have bandwidth issues unless HD over internet is compressed much more than broadcast TV, and of course, it is. So broadcast TV will remain as part of their service for a very long time yet I think, as the quality will be better.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this develops but it's easy to see why they want to limit Youview/Vision to Infinity areas.

I based my inital comment from something I had read on The Register! see below.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05...twork_upgrade/

[joshua_welby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pete taylor

I based my inital comment from something I had read on The Register! see below.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05...twork_upgrade/

It says that Multicast boradcasting will be from next year, not this year, so we have to wait and see what pans out

[d'@ve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pete taylor

I based my inital comment from something I had read on The Register! see below.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05...twork_upgrade/

Thanks for the link, I take it all back then. Had no idea they were going to upgrade the network to allow multicast routing "next year" - which in view of the age of the article (May 2011) could be sooner than we think! This and other enhancements mentioned could completely change the Internet TV landscape. For example:

Quote:

...That would mean an almost unlimited number of IPTV TV channels could be launched through BT, all of them with a signal good enough to show on a connected TV screen, indistinguishable from broadcast TV quality, up to HD and beyond. Believers in adaptive streaming may think this is unnecessary, but the difference in quality and reliability is likely to be noticed.

It could be an exciting development, particularly if their YouView box can handle it well when it comes..

[1andrew1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshua_welby

It says that Multicast boradcasting will be from next year, not this year, so we have to wait and see what pans out

As the article is dated May 2011 the "next" year it refers to is 2012.

[Hup_73]

Really interesting development - my parents are looking to move to BT Vision once the youview package is unveiled as they are already on BT broadband, and are anticipating getting the new BT sports channel next year (and potentially sky sports). But they are currently not in a BT inifinity area, so this could scupper them. Seems a strange move at a time when BT Infinity coverage isn't exactly great (fyi they live in Sussex, not Outer Mongolia!!!)

[Bangers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hup_73

(fyi they live in Sussex, not Outer Mongolia!!!)

What part of Sussex though? It's such a diverse area. If they live in Worthing or Brighton I'd understand their gripe, but perhaps not if they lived somewhere like Midhurst or Eridge!

[Hup_73]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bangers

What part of Sussex though? It's such a diverse area. If they live in Worthing or Brighton I'd understand their gripe, but perhaps not if they lived somewhere like Midhurst or Eridge!

Fair point, they live in a village just outside Lewes - but it's got a population of about 5,000, so it's not exactly tiny. If you add those kind of places up throughout the country, it'll be a lot of people.

To be fair, it's not their gripe (they probably don't even know what BT Infinity is), it's more mine as I'll be the one that'll have to explain to their pleplexed faces that they can't get sports through BT Vision.

I'm sure the area will get Infinity over the next year or so, and probably way before the BT roll out sports across IPTV only - but BT may have already scared off customers unnecessarily by that point.

[1andrew1]

With the news of BT Sports recent premiership rugby deal just announced and the 14th September cut-off for signing up in non-Infinity areas, could we expect some significant news on BT Vision's new offering in the next few days?