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Domain: ses-astra.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to ses-astra.com.

Comments · 5

  1. Re:I will happily give BBC more of my money... by qc_dk · · Score: 1 · on BBC To Make Deep Cuts In Internet Services

    A Freesat decoder box costs about £50. Buy one, have it shipped to Denmark, hook it up, done. It's not encrypted, you don't need a subscription, what's the problem?

    That it won't reach Denmark. The unencrypted channels run on Astra 2D: http://www.ses-astra.com/business/en/satellite-fleet/satellite-list/astra2d/index.php (scroll to the map at the bottom.)

  2. Astra, anyone? by mah! · · Score: 1 · on Echostar/Dish Network Pulls Viacom Channels
    I still think that watching free (as in beer... well, paid by commercials that is), thousends of unsubsidized channels beats both Dish Network and DirectTV, in terms of digital satellite TV.

  3. Re:Should've put a password on his blog.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Microsoft Fires Mac Fan For Blog Photo
    Ha! I work for SES Astra and had a picture of the Titanic on my web site the week before Astra 1K went up (and subsequently, blew up...), and I'm still working here!

    (Posting as an AC, for obvious reasons...)

  4. Re:If the emperor is the emperor, then who is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Apple Marketing Hypes New PowerMacs

    Hmm, why not ask the emperor himself?

  5. Re:How is deregulation a good idea? by Analysis+Paralysis · · Score: 3, Informative · on Dan Gillmor Shares His 'Insider's View' of Silicon Valley
    In the UK there used to be a digital terrrestrial broadcaster (ONdigital/ITV Digital). They faced a lot of problems, some of which were caused by themselves, but one issue that didn't help was that they were strictly regulated and Sky, who broadcast out of Luxembourg, were not.

    If by "regulation" you mean content control, Sky are (and have always been) regulated by the Independent Television Commission. While it is true to say that the satellites are run from Luxembourg (by SES-Astra), Sky rents space on the transponders and is UK-based in order to be able to run its subscription service (with their main call centre being in Livingston, Scotland if I remember rightly).

    ONdigital had to meet targets for subtitling, they had to do regional and sub-regional broadcasts

    If you mean regional news channels, Sky does those as well. Not being a subscriber, I cannot comment on subtitling but its cost should be quite small compared to the programming cost (you can do with only one person and relatively straightforward equipment).

    OnDigital's failure has been mostly ascribed to a single, naively-negotiated contract for footballing rights, for which they paid an amount they could not afford. I would also suggest that their consumer approach (where you could only *rent* a box with a full-channel subscription rather than buy one to sample the free channels) was flawed. The new regime with Freeview seems more promising with no subscription needed, and cheaper (£99) set-top boxes.

    The problem here is that UK (and Europe) satellite broadcasting has been a 'natural' monopoly due to the very high entry costs, plus competing brings the extra costs of a "bidding war" for film rights (this was a major reason for British Satellite Broadcasting's "merger" with Sky in 1990 as well as the demise of u>direct, an independent film channel broadcasting on the Sky platform). For Europe, replace Sky with Canal (in its various incarnations).

    Despite this monopoly, Sky is still making a loss (football rights plus the subsidy on supplying free Digiboxes to new subscribers) and I believe that Canal has only recently started to show a profit.

    Wandering back on top, for de-regulation it is not what you do but how you do it that is the key issue. It can only be beneficial if the consumer has control, and that means having the opportunity to make a choice and the information to make a "good" choice. The de-regulation of the financial industry in the UK during the 1980s gave people a wider choice for pensions, savings policies and loans but, because of the complexity and lack of independent information, unscrupulous and dishonest salesmen were able to "sell" (ie in many cases lie about) inappropriate and unnecessary products resulting in a multi-billion pound misselling scandal. Enron paupers, you are not alone...