stupid question about freeview and pay channels

nickane

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Just wondering, but is there any chance of me getting Filmfour and E4 again. I know it sounds stupid as its called FREEVIEW and there are no longer smartcard slots in the new machines, but surely they could cook something up. After ITV digital collapsed, filmfour and E4 were playing free with a caption explaining that this was a gesture of good will etc, and would continue until problems were resolved. Point is, Channel 4 did the broadcasts themselves, not ITV, so they could do them again, and all the money would go to them as the Beeb aren't allowed to charge for stuff. They'd just have to figure out how to only broadcast to those who'd paid...

Also worth noting 4text channel still has filmfour and E4 featured as well as channel 4, but obviously if u press the corresponding buttons, nothing happens.
 
AFAIK most/all new DTT boxes do have a port for a card should a subscription service start at some point in the future (future proofs the boxes).
Channel 4 can not start a subscription service as they do not have a licence to transmit on DTT (other than Ch4, but that is via Freeview). Freeview has total control of the DTT transmitions and with the number of channelks being transmitted I would think that the bandwidth is fairly full.

So in my view, Ch4 will not transmit E4/Film4 on DTT in the near future. If more bandwidth becomes available (when analogue is switched off etc.) then this could become a possibility.

Mark.
 

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