SKY's monopoly under threat?
The combination of today's Stuffs news article and the new TV's being network/ internet capable you can now appreciate the reasoning why SKY is serious this time around to relaunch it's online Sky On Demand facility called iSKY ...sky subscribers can sign up here at this link https://www.skytv.co.nz/skyid/signin...2Fmyaccount%2F
Disc: no affiliation with SKY and don't have SKT shares
UFB could broadcast 500 TV channels
TOM PULLAR-STRECKER - BusinessDay.co.nz Last updated 05:00 20/12/2010
Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman said the Government could use existing legislation to stop Sky TV from monopolising television delivered over the ultrafast broadband (UFB) network in the "unlikely" event that became an issue.
Crown Fibre Holdings said the UFB network would include an analogue "radio frequency overlay" channel, in addition to the two channels needed to carry downstream and upstream internet traffic. It said the channel would be capable of carrying at least 500 television channels.
Unlike existing bandwidth-hungry IPTV-based internet television services, RF overlay would allow television channels to be broadcast over fibre without eating up internet bandwidth. It could eventually make satellite dishes and UHF aerials redundant for television viewers in towns and cities. However, Sky chief executive John Fellet said prices for RF overlay overseas were "terribly expensive" and its main interest might be in using it to reach the likes of apartment buildings and sites where satellite dishes were discouraged or impractical.
John Nixon, managing director of Optical Network Engineering and an expert in the technology, said broadcasters were likely to use a mix of RF overlay-over-fibre, digital terrestrial and satellite services to broadcast channels to customers, while using IPTV – also delivered over fibre – for video-on-demand and interactive content.
Dr Coleman said there was a scenario in which a "broadcaster with deep pockets, Sky, could take up the capacity of RF overlay", but that was pretty unlikely. "If that happened, you have already got the Telecommunications Act and the Commerce Commission."
Mr Nixon said capacity issues were unlikely to constrain competition, especially as it would be possible to add additional RF channels.
Freeview chief executive Sam Irvine said the "big issue" would be if telecommunications companies retailing the UFB network had exclusive relationships with pay-television providers that did not allow them to provide their own content, so the only content going over the RF overlay was Sky's. "That then raises all sorts of questions because the payback of the UFB network is video content, and you need consumer choice and innovation to develop that."
Mr Fellet said it would not constrain telcos' ability to independently source content that it could not buy on their behalf.