On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:18:33 +0000 someone who may be tony sayer
wrote this:-

However,
your "brand new dish" could be pointed at Hotbird or Astra for more
channels, though not that many are in English.

Nope.. not many at all

I forgot to add that the ones that there are tend to be "rolling
news" stations. However there are stations for most tastes and only
watching programmes in English is very 20th Century.

but there is some bl**dy good radio from "over there"

Indeed. It is good to hear NPR from the USA and realise that there
is intelligence in the USA. Not everyone is as stupid as Mr Bush and
his cronies.

The new service will
have a different (to Sky) Electronic Programme Guide. I have no idea
if it will use the standard format for such things (in other words
the Sky one)

Obviously I missed the not there should be in the brackets.

Lets hope its worth the wait...

I'm not sure a fancy EPG will be worth the wait. If it uses some
non-standard format, so that it is only by buying another box with
yet another EPG system that one can view it, then it will not be
worth the wait. However, the programmes themselves will certainly be
worth the wait, as the current BBC HD service (and the other ones on
ISTR Astra) already demonstrate.

However the new service is designed to be "easy", like Sky, but
without the subscription. It is largely hype, the only really new
bit being the EPG, aimed at the mass consumer market rather than the
sort of people who do things themselves. In essence the aim is to be
almost as easy to set up and use as Freeview, with a dish being only
a little bit more difficult to install and align than an aerial.
Many people get someone else to install an aerial and many people
will get someone else to install/modify a satellite dish for this
new service.




--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54