Murdoch cleared to buy BSkyB...

[KTF]

r11co said:

Good deal for the shareholders getting peak value for a product that they know has a limited shelf-life and has been leveraged about as far as it can go. Sky in Europe lag way behind on IP infrastructure and have to rely on their competition in the market to provide the connections for their services.

Comcast have completely missed the wood for the trees with this one, but Sky playing Disney/Fox off against them was a masterstroke.

Sky have an IP STB in customers homes: https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2018/01/25/sky-ott...

In Germany there is an agreement where broadcasters have to allow each other access on the platform which is why you have sky Deutschland as well as sky services via other providers.

[r11co]

KTF said:

r11co said:

Good deal for the shareholders getting peak value for a product that they know has a limited shelf-life and has been leveraged about as far as it can go. Sky in Europe lag way behind on IP infrastructure and have to rely on their competition in the market to provide the connections for their services.

Comcast have completely missed the wood for the trees with this one, but Sky playing Disney/Fox off against them was a masterstroke.

Sky have an IP STB in customers homes: https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2018/01/25/sky-ott...

In Germany there is an agreement where broadcasters have to allow each other access on the platform which is why you have sky Deutschland as well as sky services via other providers.

So you have just confirmed what I said, plus in the UK there is no such agreement except the ones the competitors can come to on their own commercial terms.

Sky is just a brand on other peoples' connections in the UK and Italy as far as their broadband offering is concerned. Yes they have content but the best of what they had sailed away when Fox was acquired by Disney.

The only way is down for the business now. It'll be a slow decline, but Sky is to entertainment now what IBM is/was to computing - an outdated model selling big packages full of stuff that isn't necessary any more. Murdoch got out at peak market intentionally,

PS. Sky has gone full terrestrial in Italy which IMO is an admission they don't have the reach otherwise.

Edited by r11co on Sunday 23 September 20:51

[Derek Smith]

r11co said:

So you have just confirmed what I said, plus in the UK there is no such agreement except the ones the competitors can come to on their own commercial terms.

Sky is just a brand on other peoples' connections in the UK and Italy as far as their broadband offering is concerned. Yes they have content but the best of what they had sailed away when Fox was acquired by Disney.

The only way is down for the business now. It'll be a slow decline, but Sky is to entertainment now what IBM is/was to computing - an outdated model selling big packages full of stuff that isn't necessary any more. Murdoch got out at peak market intentionally,

PS. Sky has gone full terrestrial in Italy which IMO is an admission they don't have the reach otherwise.

Edited by r11co on Sunday 23 September 20:51

Has Mudoch 'got out'? I thought he still owned 39% of Sky and tried for the other 61%.

Or am I confused?

[MissChief]

r11co said:

KTF said:

r11co said:

Good deal for the shareholders getting peak value for a product that they know has a limited shelf-life and has been leveraged about as far as it can go. Sky in Europe lag way behind on IP infrastructure and have to rely on their competition in the market to provide the connections for their services.

Comcast have completely missed the wood for the trees with this one, but Sky playing Disney/Fox off against them was a masterstroke.

Sky have an IP STB in customers homes: https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2018/01/25/sky-ott...

In Germany there is an agreement where broadcasters have to allow each other access on the platform which is why you have sky Deutschland as well as sky services via other providers.

So you have just confirmed what I said, plus in the UK there is no such agreement except the ones the competitors can come to on their own commercial terms.

Sky is just a brand on other peoples' connections in the UK and Italy as far as their broadband offering is concerned. Yes they have content but the best of what they had sailed away when Fox was acquired by Disney.

The only way is down for the business now. It'll be a slow decline, but Sky is to entertainment now what IBM is/was to computing - an outdated model selling big packages full of stuff that isn't necessary any more. Murdoch got out at peak market intentionally,

PS. Sky has gone full terrestrial in Italy which IMO is an admission they don't have the reach otherwise.

Edited by r11co on Sunday 23 September 20:51

Sky in Italy have gone terrestrial because Italian rules specify it AFAIK. And a 'slow decline' has been forecasted for years now yet Sky have consistently bucked that pessimists view and increased subscribers every quarter for years and years now. There's still loads of potential in Europe too with France hardly touched, Spain only having an OTT service, not to mention the other countries and Scandinavia. This is what Comcast (and Fox/Disney) wanted, immediate reach into Europe with an established, profitable and well known brand with not just content delivery experience, but with internet and networking and OTT delivery. Ask 95% of people about satellite TV and they'll say 'Sky', completely oblivious to the other non-sky broadcasts out there.

[r11co]

MissChief said:

Ask 95% of people about satellite TV and they'll say 'Sky', completely oblivious to the other non-sky broadcasts out there.

In the UK yes. Not so much outside it though where their main penetration has been Italy and Germany where they do not dominate the market, only became established as a brand because they took over the existing market leader, and still face genuine competition, plus broadcast TV is a dying model catering for an inevitably shrinking audience by way of it being what the more mature viewer is used to.

France and Spain already have their own established go-to brands for PPV TV that have the same brand recognition there as Sky do in the UK.

I keep hearing that Sky have increased their subscriber base, but this is only because they are competing supplying a loss-leading or at best break-even broadband package as part of their service because they do not have the level of infrastructure required to reach all of their customer base on IP.

They've got years to go, but Comcast is an ironic new bed-fellow as they are in the same boat as far as an outdated business model is concerned.

[Halb]

The increase in subscribers in the UK has increased at a slower rate in the UK since 2010, I can see how the model of television changes, that that'll stop and possibly perhaps start to decrease at some point. I don't know about europe.
but as we move into this changing arena of betamax/vhs, sky will become one of many trying to deliver via fibre. Amzon, netflic, hulu...sky still has a good contract with hbo which is what keeps me on SKy Atlantic (and the best user system)