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-   -   [Speculation] Would Sky buy CityFibre / Hyperoptic / Gigaclear? (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=33704814)

Onramp 26-04-2017 00:38

[Speculation] Would Sky buy CityFibre / Hyperoptic / Gigaclear?
 
Since fibre/cable has a far greater point to point bandwidth than satellite, and since Sky are launching their dish-free TV system in 2018 here, already having done so recently in Italy where they have paired up with a national fibre telecoms company, I wonder whether it would make sense for Sky migrate to additionally providing services to the home via a fixed fibre network of their own in the UK, offering a full quad-play ultrafast service with IPTV and OTT on-demand available in connected areas. It's natural that they're going to want to be able to provide quad-play services and more on-demand content in the future, not limiting themselves to just a huge fat-pipe of tv channels over satellite - especially since that medium becomes less and less how people spend their time.

In terms of who they'd go for, as far as I know, CityFibre are involved in a lot more than just home and business connections - since they provide peering and datacentre connections into various cities and towns, so maybe they're not the ones to go for - but possibly Hyperoptic or Gigaclear, being access networks, would lend themselves to being in a good position for interest from Sky.

This is just speculation on my part. What do you think?

tweetiepooh 26-04-2017 10:47

Re: [speculation] Would Sky buy CityFibre / Hyperoptic / Gigaclear?
 
Me thinks that if Sky did go fibre there would be even more pressure on a split of Sky content and Sky delivery. And once split could Sky content differentiate pricing between Sky delivery and non-Sky delivery? And if not then what advantage Sky fibre delivery over other fibre delivery?

Onramp 26-04-2017 23:36

Re: [speculation] Would Sky buy CityFibre / Hyperoptic / Gigaclear?
 
Good point - although they already have different packages now with regard to NowTV pricing - so I can see them offering different pricing for different delivery methods in the same way.

If you were to take a 950Mb fibre connection, plus SkyQ, there would probably be some form of package bundle that would be priced differently than say, "Sky Fibre VDSL2" with 10 - 17Mb/s.

As to how it would affect wholesale pricing for channel redistribution, who knows, but I can imagine them wanting to own a piece of the consumer fixed data pie since they already do mobile and TV. Maybe if they're happy being a MVNO, they're happy either doing the same thing with fixed lines too, or just delivering TV as an OTT style service.

I would imagine they'll be using the ethernet port on the existing SkyQ box for this service, plus a software upgrade.

Onramp 29-04-2017 16:54

Re: [speculation] Would Sky buy CityFibre / Hyperoptic / Gigaclear?
 
"CityFibre keen to explore all expansion options - including its sale"

https://www.ft.com/content/baf5cfe8-...d-df09f373be87


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