Ofcom BSkyB consultation generates huge response

The Ofcom public consultation on the Proposed BSkyB digital terrestrial television services seems to be generating a lot of interest.

National Grid Wireless Ltd (NGW) and British Sky Broadcasting Ltd (Sky) have applied to remove the three free to air (FTA) channels that Sky currently provides on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform and replace them
with five pay TV channels.

Sky currently provides Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Three on a FTA basis. These would be replaced by Sky Sports 1, Sky Movies SD1 in the evening and Sky One in the evening (including an hour of Sky News content).

In addition, the remainder of Sky’s capacity would be used by Sky to retail two further pay TV channels from third party providers in the daytime: a factual channel and a children’s channel.

Sky's proposed pay TV service would not be compatible with any existing set-top boxes. Consumers would therefore need a new set-top box to receive these pay TV channels.

Details of the public consultation and how to respond can be found at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/dtv/

The responses published so far are at
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/dtv/responses/

The consultation runs until 14th December 2007.