BBC FREESAT FUTURE DECIDED BY THE BBC TRUST.

AS REPORTED BY THE BBC TRUST IN APRIL 2007.

Sample of comments from respondents who believe the Trust should notimpose these conditions
“No, as all users of TV equipment have to pay the licence and any benefit to other
participants will ultimately benefit the users.”
“No it is a partnership and therefore funds should be shared to ensure the very best in
programming and service.”
Question 11 – Should the Trust impose any other conditions if it approves the
proposals in its final decision?
Of the 390 responses to question 11, 47% consider that the Trust should impose further
conditions if it approves the proposals, while 53% do not.

Should the Trust impose any conditions?
Yes47%No53%
YesNo
Sample of comments from people who believe the Trust should impose other
conditions
“It should set limits on the price paid to other commercial channels (such as Sky one) to air
on Freesat”
“Keep costs to a minimum for subscribers”
“Perhaps limiting cost of this”
“Quality of the boxes!”
“To protect "Freesat" from Pay Per View and subscription-based companies (such as BSkyB)
that may wish to buy-into and erode the service by turning into a subscription-based service(as seems to be happening now to Freeview).”

"Should the Trust impose any conditions?". 47% said "Yes" and 53% said "No".
“Freesat should not at any stage be 'watered down' to include subscription services just toincrease the appeal of the overall service”
“That HD would be free to all, and not additional cost for either subscription or purchase of
equipment.”
“That the service should be subject to review after 5 years, with the intention of adjustment
for any licenses”
“Broadcast technology is advancing so fast currently. It is important to ensure that 'Freesat'
will be allowed to accommodate any technological advances which come along even after the
service has been launched. To this end, the technical specification of the service should be
sufficiently sophisticated and pliable to be able to accept major changes in the future in a way
which won't present problems of incompatibility between consumer equipment and new
transmission formats”
“It should limit the amount of licence money that can spent on this project, with a maximum
spend if the project is unsuccessful”
“Set top boxes should only be sold to people with UK addresses - the satellite footprint
covers most of Europe therefore the freesat box must be restricted to the UK population”
“Do not limit the BBC's ability to sell the Freesat service overseas. The BBC could easily
sell the service (by subscription or for free) to users across Europe (assuming you'd use
Astra) or further afield providing an extra revenue stream that could be used to provide
subsidies for hardware/installation back home (e.g. for pensioners, schools, hospitals).”
“A restriction on 'game' channels that are invading late night television”
“Every effort should be made to ensure that, in addition to the PSBs, only quality channels
are easily available through Freesat. Effort should be made to reduce shopping and quiz
channel content and to ban any pornographic content”
“Many people already have independent (non-Sky) satellite equipment. There must be no
bar (viewing cards, etc) that would prevent them from receiving Freesat on their existing
equipment”
Question 12 – What other comments would you like to make about these
proposals?
Due to the diverse and individual nature of responses generated by question 12 it is not
appropriate to give a quantitative breakdown.
A sample of responses to question 12