[Spencer]

I think the issue with Sky Glass is the poor broadband many people have. For example many rural areas have a broadband maximum bellow the level Sky Glass and Stream need for HD.

Ofcom’s latest figure from December is that only 0.2% of premises can’t get at least 10Mb broadband, which is also the minimum requirement for Sky Glass/Stream. I would imagine this is significantly lower than the proportion of properties that can’t have a satellite dish.

On the subject of rural broadband, I live in a small Yorkshire village which only got mains drainage about 20 years ago, still isn’t on the gas main, and the nearest shop is about two miles away. Yet we’ve had FTTC broadband for about eight years, and work is underway right now to install FTTP.

The assertion we keep hearing that rural areas have terrible broadband is way out of date. It’s only really still an issue for individual isolated properties that aren’t part of a village – and even those have the option for satellite broadband. Plus my understanding is the contracts for current rural FTTP schemes are for them to cover all properties in a given area including isolated premises.

[Newshound47]

Ofcom’s latest figure from December is that only 0.2% of premises can’t get at least 10Mb broadband, which is also the minimum requirement for Sky Glass/Stream. I would imagine this is significantly lower than the proportion of properties that can’t have a satellite dish.

On the subject of rural broadband, I live in a small Yorkshire village which only got mains drainage about 20 years ago, still isn’t on the gas main, and the nearest shop is about two miles away. Yet we’ve had FTTC broadband for about eight years, and work is underway right now to install FTTP.

The assertion we keep hearing that rural areas have terrible broadband is way out of date. It’s only really still an issue for individual isolated properties that aren’t part of a village – and even those have the option for satellite broadband. Plus my understanding is the contracts for current rural FTTP schemes are for them to cover all properties in a given area including isolated premises.

The requirement has changed now to 25mb. Plenty of houses don’t have that and can’t afford the price of satellite broadband. www.cordbusters.co.uk 

Sky Announces New Speed Rules For Glass And Stream | Cord Busters
Sky’s streaming devices, Sky Glass and Sky Stream, now have a higher broad…
  Source: www.cordbusters.co.uk

[cable]

The requirement has changed now to 25mb. Plenty of houses don’t have that and can’t afford the price of satellite broadband. www.cordbusters.co.uk 

I find it very reliable on a Three 5G connection costing me around £20, this is from a mast off a motorway junction and large residential housing area. That said it remains to be seen what the performance is like if Three/Vodafone merge.

[London Lite]

Three mobile broadband wouldn't be an option here. It's over subscribed with only Band 3 on a shared mast with EE.

However I'm fortunate that I have the choice of an Openreach provider on FTTC, Virgin Media and two Altnets.

[Technologist]

The requirement has changed now to 25mb. Plenty of houses don’t have that and can’t afford the price of satellite broadband. www.cordbusters.co.uk 

According to OFCOM Connected nations page 8
www.ofcom.org.uk 
The percentage who get 30 Mbit/s or more is 97% For uk
(E98% NI 98% S95% W96%)
Broadly what DTT offers and just more than DSAT .
So you can see why the Uk second largest domestic ISP is keen to move from satellite

[Newshound47]

I find it very reliable on a Three 5G connection costing me around £20, this is from a mast off a motorway junction and large residential housing area. That said it remains to be seen what the performance is like if Three/Vodafone merge.

Areas currently with 5G tend to be the same as where 100MB or much faster is available.

[Newshound47]

According to OFCOM Connected nations page 8
www.ofcom.org.uk 
The percentage who get 30 Mbit/s or more is 97% For uk
(E98% NI 98% S95% W96%)
Broadly what DTT offers and just more than DSAT .
So you can see why the Uk second largest domestic ISP is keen to move from satellite

True but for those 1 or 2% the end of DSAT would possibly mean having only Freeview Lite available or relying on expensive Satellite broadband which doesn’t always work on Sky Stream or Glass.

[cable]

Areas currently with 5G tend to be the same as where 100MB or much faster is available.

Typically where it can reach fibre backhaul yes. I could have 900up/900down with a certain Hampshire based provider for £25.

However the the eventual plan is to replace copper with fibre, currently being rolled out by Openreach, through Project Mustang replacing the Virgin Media HFC network (around 2028) and maybe builds by altnets like Cityfibre which will eventually merge like the original cable netorks did. So by the early 2030s its should be much more accessible.

[Technologist]

If DSAT was turned off now that would be the case
…but wired/fibre/FWA will cover more than 99% within 4 years
Greater coverage than merging DTT and DSAT now…
OFCOM talks about under 100 thousand not served almost ever. ..

And by about 10 years time when DTT contracts end ….
How many channels will still be emitted ?
How much linear tv will there be for mass audiences
Will the mobile telcos have worked out how to collectively deliver Broadcast media …
(They could do it individually…. ) ….
And many more questions ….

There is only one UK broadcaster that operates its own CDN … BiDI
About 120 nodes each dual 100 Gbit/sec And it not the one that is a ISP …
But with the largest uk ISP,is beginning to deploy MAUD,
And happens to code and mux the non BBC PSB ….
There seems to be a lot if infrastructure in place now …

[Keith]

I think DSAT/Freesat will still be present for at least the next five years at least. The challenge currently is providing Internet (30MB+) for rural areas. Openreach's work turning off the copper network will probably help towards this. Even if those premises only get FTTC it'll still be an improvement, and help support TV via ISP.

I'm inclined to believe DTT/Freeview has a longer life expectancy. The barrier here will be that older TVs do not support receiving TV via the Internet, and many don't have built in WiFi support. Even if you can add a Roku stick into the HDMI port you may find (as I did) that the TVs USB port power is insufficient. Many people can't afford to replace their TVs within a year or two.

Therefore in order to replace Freeview manufacturers need to ensure all new TVs are capable of receiving tv via Internet now, and have WiFi built in. This will help to future-proof them, for serval years time when more people have naturally replaced their TVs.

I do however see Freeview changing over the next 5 years. We already have Freeview Play, which is used to provide catchup TV services, and I can see that side of it increasing. I wouldn't be surprised if the BBC's traditional red button stream closes soon, with iPlayer streams being used instead.

We've recently had the announcement of Bauer Media removing their radio stations from Freeview. I wonder if BBC might follow and remove their radio stations, citing the Sounds app being available. I also can't see many of the +1 channels remaining.

Then there's the possible migration to DVB-T to DVB-T2. This would at least remove some HD/SD duplications, and perhaps allow for a few more HD channels. There might be a case in the short-term to retain one DVB-T multiplex to provide some legacy PSB channels for older TVs. Presumably they could also offer upgrade support for those affected, as per the recent satellite changes.