All 4 and 4 HD leaving Freesat

teddysmum

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Catch Up services are not part of any retailer guarantee or manufacturer's warranty and can disappear at any time.
They are the responsibility of the Channels themselves to provide (or not) as they see fit.
As such, Watchdog won't be interested.

I fully expect other makes of SMART TV will have very limited pre-loaded apps in future, as there is no profit involved for FTA providers.

In the case of Freetime though, Panasonic have made things difficult for the channel providers and have shown they realised this, by reverting to Freeview Play. Of course all systems will lose access at some stage due to age, but it's not expected after only two years.

[Deleted User]

teddysmum wrote: »

. Of course all systems will lose access at some stage due to age, but it's not expected after only two years.

Back on topic, anyone buying a Freesat decoder last week will have found themselves without access to All4 just a week later!

I think the behind the scenes negotiations about carriage costs have come to an impasse. The device manufacturers don't want to pay as much for SMART content and the channels don't want to pay high fees for carriage.

The only way I see this going is that TVs and other SMART devices will cease to come pre-loaded with anything other than the most basic apps. Additional content will have to be paid for by the user. The drastic fall in advertising revenue is partly responsible. but also the realisation that most Catch Up services have very little advertising anyhow. They therefore provide little or no revenue.

A 2018 Phillips TV retailing at nearly £2K does not even have access to Amazon Prime.

teddysmum

I would prefer a 'blank' tv as you are charged for the smart part, even though you don't intend to use it. The trouble is that losing smart means buying a lower grade tv and ours was bought because the picture was markedly better (higher technology) and I liked the styling, so we had no choice over smart or not smart.

[Deleted User]

teddysmum wrote: »

I would prefer a 'blank' tv as you are charged for the smart part, even though you don't intend to use it.

SMART is no longer new technology and no longer attracts much of an extra premium.

I notice even the supermarket "cheapies" have SMART features, as well as Blu-Ray players etc.

The SMART features increasingly come as standard, but don't have to be enabled, of course.

There was a thread last week wherein a poster wanted a complete refund because he could not use the features without signing up to the manufacturer's Privacy Policy!

Twosheds

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi all

If anyone's considering changing tv package based on these changes our guide should help

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/cheaper-sky-cheap-cable

I thought this site was about saving money, not wasting it on subscription services.
Freesat is a free service, so why would you recommend people consider switching to a paid service?

Incidentally, your article in the link makes NO reference to Freesat at all! Even the bit about freeview not being available to everyone, you fail to mention it.
Here's what you recommend: "Some people can't get Freeview because of their location (check on the Freeview website) which means you'll need to look at one of the other options." What about Freesat?