Epetition for some channels to become FTA on Freesat

A

avionista

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
1.8m Famaval dish, Eaglebox 800 HD
My Location
Scotland & holiday home in S Costa Blanca
There is an epetition on the go at the moment asking for Gold, Yesterday, Dave, Alibi, Blighty, etc to be transmitted FTA on Freesat. See link

epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/39304
 
Im not signing something that has glaring errors in it. If the petitioner cant even get basic facts right it'll be discredited the moment it gets to its somewjhat unlikely target of 100,000.

And anyway with the mess the country is in if the Govt doesnt have more important things to sort out than interfering with commercial contracts then theres summat seriously wrong.
 
What an ill-conceived idea!

The decision to be FTA or not and the further decision to cough up for EPG fees is a Commercial one for each and every Broadcaster.

Nothing whatsoever to do with Government.

The "logic" in the grounds for the Petition is disjointed, factually incorrect and specious.

And, inevitably, the Petitioner perpetuates the disingenuous error of equating the UK TV Licence to funding of the BBC. The funds may indeed find their way there, but read the Licence: It gives you permission to operate equipment for receiving TV transmissions - any TV transmissions.

If people think a specific Channel (or group of Channels) should be free, then lobby the provider of that Channel. But they are businesses, not charities and I imagine they know better how their own business model works than a few ill-informed potential viewers.
 
The BBC is almost entirely funded by the UK Television License, apart from some small government grants from the Foreign Office to pay for the BBC World Service, so the BBC archive material transmitted on "Dave", for example, has already been funded by UK license payers.

The epetition is not particularly well drafted but it highlights one particular problem with the present situation. Some of the channels in question ( e.g. Dave, Yesterday) are already FTA on Freeview but not on Freesat. This means that viewers in certain parts of the country where digital terrestrial TV is not available are denied access to these channels on their Freesat systems.
 
Yes we know the differences - its been discussed on the forum numerous times - as have the reasons WHY it wont happen.

As for "not particularly well drafted" - its not been drafted very well at all as its got 2 mistakes in the second paragraph.

And if the BBC gets some funds from commercial sales of its programmes all well and good - or maybe you would have the licence fee go up again instead?
 
Also, what needs to be considered is, that the probable alternative to subscription on satellite, is not FTA, but closure.
 
And thats the end of that!
 
"I thank you"
 
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