Competition
Sky's head start over BSB proved that the PAL system would give adequate picture quality and that many viewers would be happy to watch Sky's more populist output as opposed to waiting for the promised quality programming pledged by BSB. Sky had also launched their multi-channel service from studios at an industrial estate in Isleworth, west London with a 10-year lease on SES transponders for an estimated £50 million without backup. BSB, on the other hand, would operate from more expansive headquarters at Marco Polo House in Battersea, south London with construction and launch of its own satellites costing an estimated £200 million.
When BSB finally went on air in March 1990, 13 months after Sky, the company's technical problems were resolved and its programming was critically acclaimed. However its D-MAC receivers were more expensive than Sky's PAL equivalents and incompatible with them. Many potential customers compared the competition between the rival satellite companies to the format war between VHS and Betamax home video recorders and chose to wait and see which company would win outright as opposed to buying potentially obsolete equipment.
Read more about this topic: British Satellite Broadcasting
Famous quotes containing the word competition:
“Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so he simply set about achieving that efficient monopoly.”
—Mario Puzo (b. 1920)
“So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.”
—William Morris (1834–1896)
“Playing games with agreed upon rules helps children learn to live by rules, establish the delicate balance between competition and cooperation, between fair play and justice and exploitation and abuse of these for personal gain. It helps them learn to manage the warmth of winning and the hurt of losing; it helps them to believe that there will be another chance to win the next time.”
—James P. Comer (20th century)