What a profoundly stupid idea this is! That’s probably a little extreme and unfair, but nonetheless, this’ll be dead in the water in no time – of that I’m sure.
The idea is that subsribers can pay 7.99 a month to get a handful of additional channels. The website lists the 10 channels included in the deal, plus the option of subscribing to one of Richard Desmond’s porn channels.
Careful examination of the times the channels are on reveals that at any given time, only five channels are broadcasting, and since they’re using SDN space, that makes sense. Earlier reports didn’t make clear how they were going to squeeze so much in.
But there are some serious issues here.
First: channel choice. UK Gold is important, as is E4, but evidently Sky’s not playing ball, since the really important Sky One is missing. I’d suggest that their “Sky Travel” which has already moved well beyond a travel channel, will effectively become a sub-version of Sky One. Discovery’s good, but there’s no History Channel. Hallmark would have been a good addition, and frankly TCM should be in the clear not a subscription channel.
Second: boxes. To begin with, only those with ex-ITV Digital boxes will be able to receive the service. That is to say – all those who were pissed off when they went bust, and looked for alternatives like satellite or cable. Nearly all the new boxes on sale today have no slot for a card, and very few will have plans to, since word only escaped of this enterprise in the last week or so. I’d be amazed if many manufacturers were rushing to bother. So Top Up TV are going to have to manufacture add-on boxes, using scart leads to connect them up. Now I still have my old Ondigital box – but boy is it slow.
Third: encryption. This is the area I know least about, but they’re going to have to do something significantly better than ITV digital managed if they don’t want their signal hacked to bits. I’d guess that they’ve gone for some of that Israeli technology that Sky use, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Overall, I don’t see this really taking off. It’s going to confuse the market a bit, and they don’t have any sport or premium movies.
Meanwhile, they’ve just about cut-off any further chance of others getting on to the platform. Still, I confidently predict that the space will be available again in a year or so.
Top Up TV
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5 responses to “Top Up TV”
I just put my gold card in to see if the top up tv thing would work, i too agree the idea is insane as itv and on digital boxes are nearly extinct. I hope the government get involved in the sky rocketing prices of television. none of the entertainment providers show any entertainment, i am not a sports fan but an avid movie fan and it means i can only get sky. bah sorry to bore you just need to know if gold cards will be able to work. If you can find out any information about codes or anything like that id be most appreciative coz i wanna watch smallville on E4, lol thanks again
yours hopefully
The original ON Digital was a good service with plenty of the channels I wanted such as “Eurosport”, “Paramount Comedy”, “Carlton Cinema”, “Men & Motors”, a pay per view service & more depending on the level of subscription.
This “Freeview” service doesn’t utilise the capacity of the system, giving no option of any kind of upgrade to include other services.
Bearing this in mind I thought the “Top Up TV” was a good idea & still do but they’ve got to be able to offer the same choices as the original ON Digital service on a sliding scale of subscription fees, otherwise they should forget it.
I have watched the Top Up TV trailer and am astounded at their audacity. Most of the programmes that they are going to show are already available on existing Freeview channels. OK, not a dedicated film channel but TCM isn’t something to get excited about, there are only so many times you can watch “Where Eagles Dare”. I have an old “On Digital” box, so I am one of the few punters who could watch TUTV, but I have more important things to spend eight nicker a month on.
I have watched the Top Up TV trailer and am astounded at their audacity. Most of the programmes that they are going to show are already available on existing Freeview channels. OK, not a dedicated film channel but TCM isn’t something to get excited about, there are only so many times you can watch “Where Eagles Dare”. I have an old “On Digital” box, so I am one of the few punters who could watch TUTV, but I have more important things to spend eight nicker a month on.
I have watched the Top Up TV trailer and am astounded at their audacity. Most of the programmes that they are going to show are already available on existing Freeview channels. OK, not a dedicated film channel but TCM isn’t something to get excited about, there are only so many times you can watch “Where Eagles Dare”. I have an old “On Digital” box, so I am one of the few punters who could watch TUTV, but I have more important things to spend eight nicker a month on.