Wigan 1   Man Utd   0

quote=618] I remember having a massive argument with a mate who insisted that you would never have to pay to watch football on TV.[/quote]

He probably took some solace in that thought that even if you were right you'd probably have forgotten by then and certainly wouldn't still be going on about it twenty years later  

Quoted from 1054

Murdochwas pretty much at the height of his powers, swaying the british electorate, choosing governmentd. . . he has always been a ruthless man. . . The sun, news of the world, the times, sunday times, ausyrslian and american media interests, the money to put space hardware into orbit. . . with that kind if money, sky could hardly fail could it?

As I recall prior to the purchase of football rights the Murdoch empire was on the brink of collapse. He certainly held politicial sway with his highly profitable British newspaper interests but the launch costs of Sky and his purchase of 20th Century Fox saddled News Corporation with enormous debt which, in the early 1990's, suddenly became very expensive as interest rates began to crawl up.

He managed to re-organise the companies borrowings and even find new capital to purchase the rights to TV football. The takeover of BSB was in fact a merger as this too was suffering under enormous start-up costs but without the reputation of Murdoch to give the lenders any confidence.

Quoted from 1054

I think bsb (british satelite broadtcasting) were the rivals and were bought out by sky. . . sky had round dishes. . . bsb had the squariel

Sorry. yeah it was British Satellitle Broadcasting. We were one of the first in Grimsby to have one installed and up until about a year ago we still had the squarial dish on the front of our house even though it had been obsolete for the last 10 years or so. It was a far superior system to the original Sky box too. A bit similar to the Betamax Videos which were far superior to the VHS system which took over.

Quoted from Les Brechin

Sorry. yeah it was British Satellitle Broadcasting. We were one of the first in Grimsby to have one installed and up until about a year ago we still had the squarial dish on the front of our house even though it had been obsolete for the last 10 years or so. It was a far superior system to the original Sky box too. A bit similar to the Betamax Videos which were far superior to the VHS system which took over.

An iconic collectors item if ebay is anything to go by!

Serious Q - in what ways were the ridiculed Betamax better than VHS?

Smaller cassettes! Better pic quality

Quoted from GTFC R MASSIVE

Serious Q - in what ways were the ridiculed Betamax better than VHS?

The first Sony Betamax videos made were far superior in picture quality to the first VHS recorders and the tapes were smaller and more compact (still the size of a bloody brick though). However Sony tried to keep the Betamax format a private in-house system solely for them but JVC made the VHS system freely available meaning more manufacturers could make the VHS machine making them far cheaper to buy, hence Sony shot themselves in the foot and the Betamax format soon fizzled out and Sony switched to VHS.

There was also the early Phillips 2000 machines where you could record upto 8 hours on a 2-sided tape but they didn't stay around for long at all.

All i remember from being a kid is that owning a Betamax rather than a VHS system meant you got pelters in a massive way!  

Quoted from Les Brechin

The first Sony Betamax videos made were far superior in picture quality to the first VHS recorders and the tapes were smaller and more compact (still the size of a bloody brick though). However Sony tried to keep the Betamax format a private in-house system solely for them but JVC made the VHS system freely available meaning more manufacturers could make the VHS machine making them far cheaper to buy, hence Sony shot themselves in the foot and the Betamax format soon fizzled out and Sony switched to VHS.

There was also the early Phillips 2000 machines where you could record upto 8 hours on a 2-sided tape but they didn't stay around for long at all.

The Betamax system didn't die out completely. It's size and superior quality lent itself ideally to the broadcast industry, particularly the increasing market in hand-held cameras used for electronic news gathering. The Sony Betacam was the industry leader for professional news organisations for two decades and this time Sony learnt its lesson; it licensed other firms to use its' technology.

Quoted from kingofthekippers

The Betamax system didn't die out completely. It's size and superior quality lent itself ideally to the broadcast industry, particularly the increasing market in hand-held cameras used for electronic news gathering. The Sony Betacam was the industry leader for professional news organisations for two decades and this time Sony learnt its lesson; it licensed other firms to use its' technology.

You sir are a fount of knowledge and I take my hat off to you!