Sky to launch FTA service installed for £150

[PSB]

Sky have announced details of a new FTA satellite promotion, priced at just £150 for equipment and standard installation.

The service, due to launch "later this year", will come with a viewing card (to allow ITV, C4 and BBC regions to be viewed) but no requirement to subscribe to any Sky services.

That said, consumers will still be able to upgrade to a subscription package at any time without the need for any extra equipment.

The offering is designed to bring digital TV to those who are not currently interested in pay TV but cannot get access to DTT service FreeView: recent figures show that some 27% of UK households are currently unable to receive the full FreeView lineupFreeview has passed 4 million homes and is picking up viewers at a rate of 40,000 a week. This compares to the current growth rate of Sky's pay TV platform of around 22,000 a month.

With boxes priced from £50-£100. it seems that Freeview STBs are becoming the must have addition to any wide screen TV sold by the big retailers (they might have eventually persuaded their sales staff that a Freeview box is an easy upsell to add to any widescreen TV without an integrated digital tuner).

The ease of use makes it a much easier sell in Freeview reception areas than Sky for those that don't want Pay TV and it will be interesting to see how Sky's Free Offering when launched is marketed into this retailer channel.

 

[Cascade]

This may sound like a free lunch, but you still have pay the BBC a licence fee every year which at the moment is £121.
These sound like the "free" digital terrestrial channels people have been receiving on their "Free"View boxes for a few years now only they get to have a dish instead of a Yagi - oh, and still have to pay the BBC a hefty lump sum each year.

Good old England!


Edit: This seems like another way for Sky/BSB or whatever they're called nowadays to get a big golden foot in your door and make you pay even more, again.

 

[PSB]

Don't forget the rest of the UK : ) As soon as you buy a TV in the UK they report you to the BBC, then you are stuck paying the license fee for the rest of your life : (
Now that BSKYB own DirecTV, I wonder how long it will be until DirecTV start the same FTA service here, (as soon as the numbers level out, me thinks) remember where you heard it first!