Monday 29 June 2009

Countdown to cheap broadband TV

Broadband TV package prices look to be on the way down soon, with the news that Ofcom is set to slash the price that broadband provider pay to Sky for its premium channels.

At present, Virgin Media, Tiscali and BT are bound to pay Sky the princely sum of £23.50 for every customer on their books. However, early next year Ofcom is planning to cut this by a third to £16.50, on the grounds that Sky’s dominance of the pay TV arena is distorting the market.


Of course this spells a whopping cut to Sky’s revenue – and naturally they plan to challenge the regulation. But for us, should the reduction get passed at least, it looks like a result all round.

With a price reduction of that magnitude, providers will surely pass on the benefits to customers. Leaving us to enjoy cheaper Premier League football and movie premieres as well as more competitively priced broadband bundles. Roll on next year.

Monday 8 June 2009

Time ticking on watch phones status as gimmicks?


Polarising opinion once again in the mobile phone blogosphere today are watch phones. The cause of the all the kerfuffle is the LG GD910. First sighted during Feb this year, it has now resurfaced on news sites after LG quashed rumours it was due in the UK in July.

The Mirror and Tech Radar are very firmly in the fans’ camp and even go so far as to list five reasons to invest in the phone. But elsewhere, naysayers are dubbing the LG GD910 little more than a gimmick.

Whichever assessment proves true, it seems that watchphones have been a hit with the public. In an exclusive interview today on Top 10 Broadband, the manufacturer of the sWaP phone claims that demand is five times greater than they’d been expecting. The firm, which only entered the sector a matter of months ago, also outlines plans for a host of new watch phones due later this year.

Personally, I think watch phones are pretty cool – in a kind of retro modern, golden age of Sci-Fi kind of way. And if, as the chap from sWaP suggests, they keep getting high-end features, I even think they might even shed their gimmick tag, too.