Good Omens

[Apache]

I still find that Foyle's War is one of my favorite shows, even though it ended in 2015.
Apache

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Apache

I still find that Foyle's War is one of my favorite shows, even though it ended in 2015.
Apache

A favorite of mine too.

[Polarpenguin]

Good Omens was 1st published 30 years ago today.

Good Omens Lockdown

[hildea]

Thanks for that link!

[DNSB]

What he said. ↑ ↑ ↑

[fjtorres]

I vaguely remember there's a sequel season coming...?

[HLS]

Originally Posted by Apache

Anyone else excited about the release of BBC 2 and Amazon's Good Omens? Once I know the release date I plan to reread it, again, right before it is broadcast.
https://youtu.be/2ZSXlNRRoGU
Apache

What is BBC2

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HLS

What is BBC2

The second terrestrial channel broadcast in the UK by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The second terrestrial channel broadcast in the UK by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The third UK Terrestrial TV network in the UK, started in 1967 and the first on 625 lines and the first in Colour in the UK. First was in 1935 (closed 1939--1945), 2nd was ITV in 1955.
Possibly on digital satellite since 1998 (encrypted by Sky) and maybe Free To Air on Satellite since about May 2003. The 4th Terrestrial channel was in November 1982, I think, C4. I still lived in the UK then. The fifth UK Terrestrial network was unusually FTA on Analogue Satellite (19.2E) but with the Encryption flag set to fool some boxes, Five. A Limerick radio station was picking it up by satellite and rebroadcasting, allegedly with a local licence. The 1st four UK channels were on Cable TV in all the major Irish cities. That was shut down for opting out and doing their own adverts. They were also the first radio station in Ireland to lose the radio license!

BBC2 can be freely received in all of Ireland and most of France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, parts of Denmark and Germany. Previously on an older satellite as far as Cyprus. A much larger dish is needed in some countries. However even in the UK a larger dish is needed in some areas for Sky / Freesat on 28.2E.
People on the Irish Border areas have always received UK TV and on the coast from Welsh Transmitters from Drogheda to Waterford. The really big masts are gone, replaced by satellite dishes. Cable TV in Ireland originally ONLY had the one Irish channel and three UK channels and on FM Band II the UK FM radio channels. Gradually other channels were added as Analogue Satellite Pay TV brought the American channels.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The third UK Terrestrial TV network in the UK, started in 1967 and the first on 625 lines and the first in Colour in the UK. First was in 1935 (closed 1939--1945), 2nd was ITV in 1955.
Possibly on digital satellite since 1998 (encrypted by Sky) and maybe Free To Air on Satellite since about May 2003. The 4th Terrestrial channel was in November 1982, I think, C4. I still lived in the UK then. The fifth UK Terrestrial network was unusually FTA on Analogue Satellite (19.2E) but with the Encryption flag set to fool some boxes, Five. A Limerick radio station was picking it up by satellite and rebroadcasting, allegedly with a local licence. The 1st four UK channels were on Cable TV in all the major Irish cities. That was shut down for opting out and doing their own adverts. They were also the first radio station in Ireland to lose the radio license!

BBC2 can be freely received in all of Ireland and most of France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, parts of Denmark and Germany. Previously on an older satellite as far as Cyprus. A much larger dish is needed in some countries. However even in the UK a larger dish is needed in some areas for Sky / Freesat on 28.2E.
People on the Irish Border areas have always received UK TV and on the coast from Welsh Transmitters from Drogheda to Waterford. The really big masts are gone, replaced by satellite dishes. Cable TV in Ireland originally ONLY had the one Irish channel and three UK channels and on FM Band II the UK FM radio channels. Gradually other channels were added as Analogue Satellite Pay TV brought the American channels.

Are the US streaming services available yet?
Not just NETFLIX, Prime, Hulu, et all, but rather Sling, YoutubeTV, Philo, FuboTV, etc?

Not all are expanding internationally yet, but the day is coming...
On this side cable and satellite TV services are losing hundreds of thousands of subscribers each month.

[Quoth]

92% of what is watched on Pay Satellite or Pay Cable in Ireland is actually content either on free Satellite or free terrestrial.
It's sport that sells about 1/2 of PayTV here.
The cable company is getting Sat pay TV customers in the big cities ... because they have 100 Mbps to 400 Mbps HFC with local Netflix servers at their main nodes. There is not yet a huge amount of fibre and you need to be within 1km of the exchange or a fibre cabinet for decent VDSL broadband. The Cable company has a special deal on Netflix. So the cable company (a subsidiary of UPC a subsidiary of Liberty Global) now sells broadband only subscriptions. The Sky Satellite Pay TV are now doing streaming and reselling DSL/VDSL/Fibre. Did Disney buy them lately?

I stopped Pay TV over 15 years ago. I've no interest in it. I've little interest in what is on the ecologically damaging and sold near cost or below cost streaming. If the film is good I'll buy a DVD or BD. Also the so called HD on streaming is barely as good as DVD from a good film master decently upscaled.

Mostly I read books.

The only "recurring subscriptions" I'll pay are for broadband, my domains and my hosting. That's unavoidable. My phone is Pay as you Go top up vouchers. I don't use mobile data on it as I don't go out (even before the current situation).

I have legal Free To Air Satellite from four satellite positions and the local Irish terrestrial channels. I hardly watch TV now compared to 10 years ago.

The CGI in books is better anyway and easier to ditch rubbish with little investment.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's sport that sells about 1/2 of PayTV here.
.

That I'd heard.
I also heard the Premier League is looking to go direct to consumer and start their own streaming service. "Premflix".

As for Sky, Disney was outbid by Comcast:

https://www.latimes.com/business/hol...922-story.html

They own at least 75%.
They may come to regret that one.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That I'd heard.
I also heard the Premier League is looking to go direct to consumer and start their own streaming service. "Premflix".

As for Sky, Disney was outbid by Comcast:

https://www.latimes.com/business/hol...922-story.html

They own at least 75%.
They may come to regret that one.

Especially if Sky loses the lucrative sport. As an outsider, it looks to me like the big rights battles and payments has totally divorced the Premier from the rest of football and distorted the pay and transfer fees of players to the point were it's not sport but a mad exhibition fuelled by money with Sport Subscriptions ripping off people (some in Ireland have needed three subs some years). They had football, rugby and cricket before there was pay TV and it was on TV too.
My wife watches a lot of tennis on Eurosport DE, or did before now.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Especially if Sky loses the lucrative sport. As an outsider, it looks to me like the big rights battles and payments has totally divorced the Premier from the rest of football and distorted the pay and transfer fees of players to the point were it's not sport but a mad exhibition fuelled by money with Sport Subscriptions ripping off people (some in Ireland have needed three subs some years). They had football, rugby and cricket before there was pay TV and it was on TV too.
My wife watches a lot of tennis on Eurosport DE, or did before now.

The idea is apparently to reduce it to one subscription to rule them all.
(And send all the money straight to Premiere.)

American sports leagues all have streaming services and are ready to phase towards a direct distribution channel when the numbers add up.

HBO is doing the same thing: it costs $15 a month via cable (of which the cable company keeps $6) and setting up a massively enhanced streaming service, HBOMAX, at $15 a month, of which all the money goes to HBO. They'll be transitioning customers away from cable to internet over time.

The tech is easy and available to all so there is little reason to pay middlemen to get to market. It is the same logic as authors going Indie; a bit more upfront effort, a much higher profit margin ever after and no need to surrender control of the product.

[Quoth]

With internet it's not scaleable to the mass market without servers at the ISP.
Also the percentage of internet used for ebooks is tiny. It can be over half for streaming TV.
The Cable company in many areas is the only viable broadband. Mobile, even 5G, can't replace fibre, dsl and cable for broadband and even less so for streaming video for a mass market. Basic physics.

The cable companies just won't be selling premium broadcast channels.