Sky creates 1,000 jobs - still charges the earth for HD sub
By Benny Har-Even in Editorial
Earlier this week Sky announced that is would be creating up to 1,000 jobs as it expects to an upsurge in interest in its HD television service – clearly some good news in a country that’s rapidly becoming a sea of unemployment.
Off the back of that, to help encourage that interest it’s lowered the cost of its Sky HD box to £49.
When Sky first launched its HD service in May 2006, it was charging £299 for the box, and more recently it was asking £149 or even £99, depending where you shopped. Less than fifty quid then seems a pretty good deal and means that its HD box is now cheaper than its standard Sky+, which is still £99.
Of course Sky isn’t just doing this out of the kindness of its heart – it’s clearly trying to fend of competition from the FreeSat service that launched last year – through which customers can view HD content, currently limited to BBC and ITV. The FreeSat+ PVR box, that offers equivalent functionality to the Sky+ HD box, is still at £299, so again the Sky HD box deal looks pretty good.
However, I’d just like to point out, in case it’s escaped anyone’s attention, that the cost of Sky HD is not really the box. (Certanily not for Sky, who probably pay mere pennies for it). The cost, of course, is the monthly subscription charge, which is quite simply huge.
Sky charges an extra £10 a month for its HD service on top of your existing package. Now in my view there’s little point getting Sky HD if you don’t get the Sports and movies package – as otherwise you might as well stick with Freesat. I currently pay £16.50 for my standard Sky package – (Variety + Kids), but if I wanted to go HD, with Sports and Movies, that would go up to around £52 a month. So, forgive me for not getting too excited at Sky dropping the price of its box.
If you plump for the £300 FreeSat+ box, plus installation (£80) you’ll have paid the same as a full Sky HD installation in seven months – and after that, you saving – ‘cos it’s FreeSat see – no monthly cost. Now I’m not knocking Sky’s comprehensive HD package, and indeed if you’re willing and able to pay then fair do’s, you’re getting the best HD content available in the UK – but darn, it’s pricey.
I just wanted to point that out.
So while Sky may have created 1,000 jobs, I doubt anyone taking those jobs will be earning enough to actually afford a Sky HD subscription.
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Video walls on London Underground
By Benny Har-Even in Editorial
Posted in video, London Underground on
Arriving at Camden Town this morning on my commute to work I was intrigued to see a large video advert on the wall of the station advertising a white super mini.
Is this new? I’ve seen the video panels running alongside the escalators at Leicester Square but I’d not seen this before.
I have to admit I thought it looked pretty cool and it certainly seemed to be doing the job by attracting the attention of the many commuters on the platform.
Initially, I was wondering how the image was being produced as the screen was pretty flush with the tube wall. The penny dropped when I spotted the rather enormous projector hanging from the ceiling above.
The video ads are run by CBS Outdoor and a look at its web site (www.cbsoutdoor.co.uk/alive) tells me that the projected ads are called XTP – or Cross-track Projection and that the image is in high-def 720p resolution – it did look rather good.
But does the projector really need to be that large? I guess in the brightly lit environment of the tube it does, in order to fit bulbs that are sufficiently large and bright and with enough room in the enclosure for them to not get too hot.
CBS also does those escalators video ads, which it dubs Digital Escalator Panels (DEPs) and it also does the moving video billboards, dubbed LCD. I’ve not yet spotted a bus with video ads on its side (LED Bus) though.
So if you’re a London commuter are you impressed with the walls becoming ‘alive’. Now I love things going ‘futuristic’ more than most, but at the same time I’m concerned that we could eventually end up with our entire journeys becoming like Picadilly Circus, a dizzying fairground ride of bright lights and moving images. Will we all start having to wear sunglasses on the tube just to get through the journey?
Answers on a postcard – no video messages please.
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