Caroline Leave 0199
Follow @mediaukdiscussIn our old place we did touch on this, but I wonder what our new wider readership feel about Radio Caroline’s decision to come off the Sky EPG on channel 0199. You ccn still hear the station on satelite but you will have to add it in the ‘other channels’ options. If you listen on satelite, does this bother you. It was pointed out that on Sky the station is in MONO whereas online you can hear it in stereo. Is online the way to go for stations that have a ‘specialist’ audience?
The last quote I had for an EPG listing (3 years ago so bear that in mind) for a client was £24,000 a year.
Paul’s given the costs earlier (and I’m interested to know whether you saw that okay: we’re all learning how these new forums work!). Carriage is normally less than the EPG fee (depending on the satellite used and the bitrate too).
I can see it. Will take a bit of getting used to ‘break out’ conversations in a thread due to the option of “REPLY” or “COMMENT”.
Cheers.
£24k? That’s a healthy saving for some ‘enthusiasts’. But it will definitely be a factor in people finding them to listen to.
Just having distribution won’t necessarily bring you any listeners. However not having distribution (ie no EPG and just streaming) as well as no marketing, will definitely mean few listeners.
Given that, and the fact that Radio Caroline relies a lot on monthly membership of £7 a pop, how many members is that. I guess they are making sure that they do not overstretch themselves financially which in the current economic climate is a good thing. I too feel that coming off the EPG is not going to help their cause. I wonder, has anyone ever done any research into who uses the ‘other channels’ feature and what they use it for?
It’s mostly for adding services which aren’t really aimed at the general public, such as in-store radio. Other uses can include broadcast testing, and tuning in foreign channels if somebody has an unconventional setup.
Radio Caroline wouldn’t be the first radio station in there. I believe that Gaydar Radio, for example, has spent some time there, but their market may perhaps be more willing to go the extra mile to get the station.
Television stations seldom end up there – Rapture Television were there during one of their runs, but they were constantly in dispute with Sky over the EPG, even taking them to court on occasion I believe.
The Jo Public only, for the most part, is willing to press a few buttons to hear/see something, else they are inept in trying to do something different!
As for those who don’t understand they also shun the Internet and perhaps will always be like this, so no chance of getting them to “Tune In” on-line.
How to raise the cash to sustain this is the question. It’s a pity the Euro-Millionaires (UK), so far, aren’t Radio Caroline fanatics.
Forgive me: but why does it need to be sustained? Either it’s a viable business or it’s not.
Radio Caroline is run on a “not for profit” basis, by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.
Ahead of any official announcement, it will do no harm to add Radio Caroline to “Other Channels” now. Frequency: 11224, Polarity V, Symbol Rate 27.5, FEC 2/3. Method: Press “Services”. Press 4 (SYSTEM SETUP).Press 4 again (ADD CHANNELS). Enter above data, then select “Find Channels”. Scroll right, then down to “Rdio Caroline”. Press “Select”. That’s it! To select this after watching or listening via EPG, press “Services”, press “7” (OTHER CHANNELS), and if this is the only station listed, not on EPG, just press “select”. That’s it! You now can access the station via both the EPG until the end of June, and via the OTHER CHANNELS option now, and thereafter, assuming the station continues on this satellite, AND on the same frequency.
Personally I think having an online presence now is more important than being available on Sky or satellite. When you consider all the costs involved it makes financial sense to concentrate on having the online presence. Figures have shown that online radio gains more listeners during working hours which can benefit the stations being listened too as well as businesses advertising through them.
I M P O R T A N T _ U P D A T E.
CHANGE OF FREQUENCY.
NEW FREQUENCY ON AIR NOW, RUNNING ALONGSIDE DISCONTINUING FREQUENCY VIA E.P.G.
Transponder Frequency: 11428 Ghz.
Polarisation: Horizontal, Symbol Rate: 27.5, FEC:2/3.
Audio PID (APID): 2377, Service ID (SID): 53128.
We’ve added this to Radio Caroline’s entry on our directory. Cheers for that.
I think that figure sounds about right
Radio Caroline is now off the Sky EPG.
To tune in on your Sky box.
Press “services”, Press “4” (SYSTEM SETUP), Press “4” again (ADD CHANNELS).
Frequency enter: 11428, Press right cursor to set polarisation to “H”.
Leave Symbol Rate at 27.5. Leave FEC at 2/3, Select “Find Channels” Radio Caroline appears by itself.
PRESS YELLOW TO “STORE” CHANNEL, Press “SELECT”, press “sky” to exit.
Now to listen: Press “services”, press “7” (OTHER CHANNELS), then “SELECT” Radio Caroline. Happy listening!
YAWN!
How much IS the EPG? A friend of mine runs a station in Europe, and he’s in the very, very early stages of looking at Satellite as a way of broadening his options. From what he said, the carriage is very reasonable. It’s just the ‘listing’ (which you need to build an ‘every day’ audience) that costs.
Can anyone confirm that?
I think being tucked away on ‘additional channels’ (along with Topps Tiles etc) isn’t going to help them build an audience, never mind retain it. I wonder how many internet radio’s they could buy with two years SKY money…and then give them away on air.
MAYBE an idea is a kind of internet radio ‘jammer’. Like in the 90’s with those promotional radio’s that were locked to a part of the broadcast band, but with one IP. Dunno.