The Channel | 2003 | September

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opportunities for saving, which can
be as much as 30 per cent of
capacity. Bird says that another five
per cent can probably be squeezed
out of existing transmission
technologies before R&D time is
better spent elsewhere.
Away from the technology, carriage
agreements are needed
to ensure that your
channel appears within
the electronic
programme guide, and
sometimes to help
secure a more
prominent position
within the guide. The
number of free-to-air
channels available from
Astra at 19 degrees East
are often thought of as
a means to boost
subscription packages
in certain markets – it
may very often be the
cast that the same
channels are just as
good a reason not to
subscribe in the first
place – their appearance
within the EPG may be
a different matter.
Having a collection of
major German
broadcasters may not
necessarily sell a digital
package in France, or
vice versa, so a
platform operator will
probably only choose
to strike an agreement with those
channels that bring something new
to the party. DVB rules mean that
every receiver carrying the DVB
mark must be obliged to receive
every unencrypted signal that is
available. Depending on the
satellite receiver, these additional
channels may be added to the
bottom of the list or more likely be
Costing the earth…and Sky
added individually by the
subscriber.
In the UK electronic programme
guides are regulated by Oftel, one
of the many communications
regulators, which will fold into Ofcom
at the turn of the year. Originally
channels were placed in the Sky
Guide EPG on a first come, first
served basis, with three-channel
spacing to allow spin-off channels
to sit alongside their parents. In
recent weeks there has been some
reshuffling as newly launched radio
channels take places previously
occupied by their fallen comrades.
The higher up the EPG the better,
so when the BBC decided it may
40 | the channel
not need encryption but did require
conditional access, it was able to
negotiate space higher up the order
for its digital-only channels BBC
Three and BBC Four.
Sky is obliged to offer carriage to
all comers, though the days of 50p
per subscriber carriage fees have
long since passed, as
increasing subscriber
numbers combine
with the City’s need
to see increased per
subscriber revenues.
The same goes for a
position on the EPG
and the
a c c o m p a n y i n g
p r o g r a m m e
information. The
regulator approves
the charges, but
there was concern
from smaller TV
broadcasters and
radio stations late in
2002, when Sky
tripled its charges. TV
broadcasters are
now required to pay
£35,000 per year in
addition to Sky’s
conditional access
charges, increasing
to £75,000 for free-
to-air transmissions.
Conditional Access
charges will be
subject to
negotiation, as will
interactive services with additional
fees payable for pay-per-view
transactions, or televoting
applications.
Julian Clover is editor of Broadband
TV News, a weekly electronic
magazine that covers all aspects of
satellite TV and interactivity.
So many screens, so little time
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