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Pay
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How
many channels can one get on digital?
How much will pay services cost? Updated 24/5/00
What is
pay-per-view/Video On Demand? Updated 13/2/02
How many pay TV channels can one get on
digital?
At least 10-15 channels will be available to Irish
DTT viewers to subscribe to. The number will depend on
whether the UK terrestrial channels are pay-TV or not.
Over 200 channels are available on DSAT, most of which
are pay-TV. All channels on digital cable and MMDS
services are pay TV - this is about 200 for digital cable
and 60 for digital MMDS.
Pay TV has
been abandoned on Northern Ireland DTT, and it has been
decided that in future the service will be composed of
free-to-air channels only. The multiplexes operated by
ITV Digital plc have been re-allocated to BBC Free To
View Limited and Crown Castle UK Limited.
How much will pay services cost?
It will depend on the operator you chose. Sky
Digital's minimum service costs £7 for three channels.
NTL Digital Plus in Northern Ireland costs £13 for a
telephone line and a basic set of digital channels. NTL
Go Digital in the Republic costs £10 extra (on top of
your existing analogue subscription) for 50 channels.
Chorus Digital costs £18.94 a month for twenty channels,
a telephone line and Unison TV-internet access. Prices
for Irish DTT will be announced by the successful
applicant for the licence. As well as this, pay-TV is
structured in tiers. Other than the basic tier,
there are usually several packages which you can choose,
or you can have them all at a discount. . After this
there are premium tiers (Sky Movies and Sports), and
finally PPV...
What
is pay-per-view/Video On Demand?
....Pay-per-view allows you to order the latest
film releases before they appear on Sky Movies. A film is
shown repeatedly all day on a certain channel. You must
pay a certain amount - typically £2.99 - to view the
movie. (Sports events are normally more expensive). You
order using your remote control and the EPG, and the cost
of the movie is added to your bill at the end of the
month.
Chorus is operating its own pay-per-view service, Chorus
Select, which brings you a choice of 16 movies every
night as well as special events.
Digital Satellite and Cable viewers get more, though. By
broadcasting a movie every 15 minutes, Dsat and Dcab can
offer Near Video on Demand. NTL's service is called
Digital Front Row, with 52 channels, and SkyDigital's Sky
Box Office Digital, with 48 channels. NTL intend in the
future to offer True Video on Demand, so you can watch a
movie (played out of hard disk at the headend) exactly
when you want to, pausing it when you want to (presumably
no rewinding though!) , but this will probably not be
available before 2002. It is currently scheduled for
Phase II of Digital Plus.
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