When the full horror of a shooting war is revealed, as we've seen in Iraq, many writers must quietly regret their easy use of military metaphors to spice up articles that have little to do with life or death.
Trades unions are often said to be waging war, and we are forever involved in battles, fights, and even pinpoint tactical action from time to time. With a real war going on, language like that seems partly disrespectful, partly frivolous.
So I return with some caution to a topic previously described in this column as the "battle of the boxes". This was the race between BSkyB and ITV Digital to put decoder boxes on top of the nation's televisions so that we could all watch their selection of multi-channel TV.
We all thought that the box war had ended when ITV Digital went bust after losing a billion pounds in its effort to give away decoders for the non-satellite Digital Terrestrial TV system (DTT). Into the gap stepped a consortium of the BBC, transmitter company Castle Towers, and, hedging its bets, BSkyB which was once the arch-opponent of the DTT platform that it was now buying into.
With a new brand of "FreeView" boxes on the market, incapable of receiving pay-TV, television through our existing aerials became a free-to-air service which began to pick up users at a comfortable rate, and even allowed the government to revive discussion about turning off the analogue transmitter network some time in the future. End of story, most people said.
Last month, though, came a new twist, again involving the BBC, which showed that the story was not yet over at all. The Corporation announced that all its TV and radio channels currently broadcast on BSkyB were going to switch satellite, onto a new bird run by Astra, where viewers would no longer have to pay any subscription, and as long as they had the appropriate dish and box could watch the BBC on satellite for free.
According to the BBC, the main reason for the move was cost-saving, driven by a price-hike in the rates that BSkyB proposed to charge for the BBC to use the patented encryption system that scrambles all broadcasts on its satellite. For that reason alone, the other public service broadcasters are likely to follow the BBC onto the new satellite to avoid being held to ransom by BSkyB, although ITV, C4, and C5 haven't said anything in public yet.
However,they, like the BBC, are as likely to be attracted by the other reason for changing satellite - the longer-term possibility of decoder boxes that can be bought across the counter for a one-off charge, with no monthly subscription payments to BSkyB, in the same way that Freeview has become a completely free service.
Last month's announcement probably shocked BSkyB more than anyone else - the Murdoch-dominated company had begun to take it for granted that the UK's public broadcasters would forever have to use its scrambling system to limit reception of their channels to viewers in Britain. Reception of BSkyB's satellite is possible across most of Europe, raising copyright problems for broadcasters who buy films and football on the basis that they will be shown only in the UK. Encryption was the answer, and officially at least, BSkyB decoder cards are supposed to be sold only to users in Britain, blocking the UK's public broadcast channels from viewers elsewhere in Europe.
The new satellite due to be used by the BBC beams its signal mostly to the UK and Ireland, with less overspill into other countries, meaning that channels can be broadcast un-scrambled without the same fears of upsetting holders of creative rights.
Provided BSkyB honours its legal obligation to make a few technical changes, the BBC's programmes will be available through the standard electronic programme guide, and homes that continue subscribing to Sky should notice no difference, except the new availability of regional channels which, for example, will allow expat Scots to watch local news from Glasgow, even if they live in Cornwall.
Homes with satellite equipment who don't want to pay for BSkyB will, hey presto, be able to view the BBC, and potentially other public broadcasters, via their dishes for the first time.
The loser in all this could turn out to be BSkyB - they don't make a big noise about it, but there are plenty of free-to-air channels on their system, including CNN for example, and a FreeSat service, modelled on the lines of FreeView, could be a real threat.
One possible winner is the UK government, which now has a way of delivering free TV to the 25% of homes that can't receive FreeView and would be completely cut off when the analogue TV transmitters are shut down.
Personally, I'm waiting to see what the Times and the Sun make of all this once the BBC finalises its move - remember who owns them?
Tony Lennon
April 2003
