Sky to Stop Subscribers Recording HDTV

12th December 2004

Sky have decided to stop subscribers recording HDTV transmissions by requiring people to have equipment which supports the HDCP digital rights protection system.

Sky only said that the "vast majority of HDTV programming" would be protected in this way, but it can be assumed that Sky have already decided to use it themselves, and the reason they said that it would only be "the vast majority of HDTV" content is because -- despite the common mis-conception -- Sky don't own the satellites from which they transmit their signals so, for example, they cannot speak for other broadcasters like the BBC, because they can choose whether or not to use this content protection system.

What this means is that anybody who has bought, or will buy, a projector/plasma TV/LCD TV that does not support HDCP is the proud owner of a very expensive non-compatible display!!

Just to clear up any confusion that people have about the relationship between the satellites and Sky: Sky lease bandwidth from SES Astra, and SES Astra launch and own the satellites. So, when people say that they don't want to get digital satellite because of Rupert Murdoch's involvement with Sky, they don't have to have any involvement with Rupert Murdoch whatsoever if they purchase a free-to-air digital satellite receiver and dish, and the only channels that they couldn't receive would be ITV1, Channel 4 and five, because these are encrypted by Sky. These 3 TV channels (which are termed "free-to-view", or FTV) can be decoded without subscription, however, but you would need to have some involvement with Mr Murdoch, because you'd need to get the "new" Freesat from Sky non-subscription package for £150, although because this package includes the receiver, dish and installation, then I doubt Mr Murdoch makes a great deal of profit from it, if any. For a list of the free-to-air (FTA) TV channels and radio stations available, see:

http://www.wickonline.com/fta.htm

and to compare the bit rates of the digital radio stations on DAB and FTA digital satellite, see the bit rate table at the bottom of this page.

Sky also announced that their new HD-enabled set top box will support both 1080i and 720p HDTV formats. Although the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced their preference for 720p, because Sky cannot control what format other broadcasters choose to use for HDTV, then it was always likely that their HD-enabled receiver would support both formats.