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Sky halves EPG charges for public service broadcasters and saves BBC local radio

Sky is set to lower the charges it makes to the four public service broadcasters after complains that the prices were excessive. The BBC will have 5.5m back, 5.7m will go to ITV, 2.3m to Channel 4 and 600k to Channel 5. This is enough to reduce the proposed cuts to BBC local radio.

Sky is set to lower the charges it makes to the four public ser
published on UK Free TV

Back in August, UK Free TV reported (Paying Sky for free public service television) that the public service broadcasters were being charged many millions of pounds to have their programmes listings provided to Sky customers.

Today, Broadcast reports (see BBC radio gets boost as Sky slashes retrans fees - News - Broadcast) that Sky will halves the costs to these broadcasters.

The reductions will be:

  • BBC, £9.9m reduced to £6m in 2012 and £4.4 in 2014.
  • ITV, £8.1m reduced to £4.5m in 2012 and £3.1m in 2014
  • Channel 4, £5m reduced to £4m in 2012 and £2.7m in 2014
  • Channel 5, £1.4m reduced to £1.1m in 2012 and £800,000 in 2014

The savings to the BBC will be used by the corporation to reduce the proposed cuts to BBC local radio.

John Tate, the director of policy and strategy at the BBC told the Guardian ( BSkyB to cut BBC transmission charges by more than £5m a year - Media - guardian.co.uk )

"The value Sky gets out of carrying BBC channels is huge, if Sky had to pay for that it would be hundreds of millions of pounds," said Tate. "Licence fee payers are being unfairly disadvantaged, the logic is that Sky should be paying to carry the most popular channels."

It is still worth noting that almost three quarters of viewing of TV channels (by Sky subscribers and non-subscribers) is to free-to-air channels provided by the main public service broadcasters, the BBC, ITV plc, STV, UTV, S4C, Channel 4 and Channel 5.



How does Sky calculate the charges to the BBC?

The current charges to the BBC are made up of:

EPG listing charge: £21,000 per TV channel per year, £16k per radio channel per year. The BBC list 11 TV channels excluding the 20 regional variations of BBC One and Two, and 18 radio channels. That's £231k for the non-regional plus £420k for the regional slots, and £288k for the radio stations, £939k total.

Then there's a 'Platform Contribution Charge' which seems to be set on viewership. For the BBC:


BBC Alba, BBC Parliament, BBC HD and BBC One HD pay the £92k 'Other Television Channels' charge and the 18 radio stations the £6k charge.
Total £9,887,625.

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Comments
Monday, 12 March 2012
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:59 PM

Nedbod: BARB don't publish figures for BBC ONE HD, they include the figure in the BBC ONE figure. I've checked with Broadcast Magazine, and it's not listed in their tables either.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
N
Nedbod
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:38 PM

Shame, I'd be interested to know, my sister has had BBC ONE HD for two years but still watches BBC ONE EAST !! in non-HD on Freesat on her HDTV. I'm sure she's not alone.

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
N
NottsUK
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:28 AM

Nedbod: How as your sister managed to get BBC ONE HD for 2 years, when it didn't start till 04 November 2010?

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NottsUK's 345 posts GB flag
T
trevorjharris
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:22 AM

I have now read that the reduction in the fees was in exchange for iplayer access on anytime+.
I also understand that the BBC is considering the reduction in regional areas available on satellite. I wonder if this is so they can have regional HD for BBC 1 HD using fewer transponders.

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trevorjharris's 367 posts GB flag
P
Peter
1:58 PM

trevorjharris:

Firstly - where was it documented that the reduction in EPG fees was in exchange for iplayer access on anytime? I thought the iplayer access was agreed back in January; and why should the reduction of BBC affect other PSB providers?

Secondly - what is your source of information for the proposed reduction of BBC regional areas on satellite?

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Peter's 18 posts GB flag
T
trevorjharris
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:56 PM

OK I found the article

iPlayer deal saves BBC Sky platform costs

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trevorjharris's 367 posts GB flag
P
Peter
10:18 PM

trevorjharris:

Thanks for the link - I imagine the BBC would want to reduce number of regions for general cost reasons anyway - all those offices for staff, and all those transponders showing exactly the same programmes except for about 45 minutes per day.

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Peter's 18 posts GB flag
Sunday, 29 April 2012
N
Nedbod
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:03 AM

Nedbod: Well One and a half then, rounding error !!, apologies.

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag
Friday, 18 May 2012
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

10:18 AM

Please see BBC Trust - Trust's service review of BBC Local Radio for the "final" position of the BBC on this.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Thursday, 31 October 2013
R
Rob
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:17 PM

I like to ask why we have Sky BBC and ITV channels and Freesat BBC itv channels.. i found on a generic sat box over 600 odd channels why on earth they have to broadcast two separate platforms ie sky and freesat twice?? it don't make any sense in doing that.... Ok you got to have regional bbc and itv which is fair enough but why do they whole thing twice? to me seems a waste of satellite channels when it can be freed up for other things

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Rob's 171 posts GB flag
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