JUNE 25, 2002

Sky slashes price of pay-per-view

BRITAIN's Sky Digital service has almost halved the price it is asking for its eight-channel interactive Formula 1 program. The original price was $18 a race but there does not appear to have been much of a response to that and so for the second half of the year the station is offering a deal at $75 for the last eight races. This works out at $9.30 per race. The news is no big surprise as the service has not performed as well as had been hoped but it will not be popular with Britain's free-to-air terrestrial service from ITV.

Much effort is going into promoting the cheaper package which is being seen as the last ditch stand of pay-per-view TV before the idea is thrown out and the TV technology and equipment is turned over to producing a single channel signal including all the best elements of the eight-channel pay-per-view service.

The intention of this would be to charge the free-to-air broadcasters more than is currently the case but provide them with a show that is much better than they get at the moment.