What Satellite & Digital TV Magazine

Thanks for showing my system in the December issue!:smashin:
 
What has happened to Wotsat? My wife got me the latest issue yesterday and it only has 34 pages, most of which are the channel lists and the rest is just a poor TV preview magazine and a single technical article about how to align your satellite dish

This pitiful effort cost £4.50, although it did include a "bonus" but unwanted, copy of Hifi Choice. Is the magazine about to fold?
 
My understanding is that they laid off their staff writers a couple of years ago and rely on "outsourcing" articles. Their rate per word is probably too low to attract good writers (or indeed any writers), hence the lack of articles. Frankly, if their rates were any good then *I* would be happy to write articles but they haven't asked me to.

Magazines have to strike a balance. The magazine has various costs including the payment for the editor, writers, copy editor(s), proof reader(s), printing and distribution.

These costs are covered by the money paid by advertisers and the money paid by purchasers/subscribers. When the number of subscribers falls, the magazine has to increase its cover price and/or the cost of advertising. Inevitably, this leads to a further reduction in the number of subscribers and advertisers, requiring more price increases. Soon a tipping point is reached and the magazine fails to cover its costs.

From your description of the current issue, I think that point has been reached.

Some magazines have survived by switching to an on-line model. However, they have to switch before the number of subscribers and advertisers falls too far. Otherwise, they have to start from scratch to try to attract both and that's not easy.

The problem with satellite TV is that it has become a commodity in the UK. There's no longer a huge choice. In fact, for most people, they simply contact Sky and let them do everything. Only a few enthusiasts are interested in receiving foreign channels.

Also, there's not a great number of accessories so the number of satellite-specific advertisers has fallen.

The interest has changed from enthusiasts interested in motorised or multi-LNB systems with lots of gadgets to the man-in-the-street who simply wants to watch TV with the minimum of fuss. His only interest is to pipe TV to other rooms - preferably in HD.

In addition, with Freeview now providing a reasonable choice of channels with quality as good as satellite TV, fewer people even need satellite TV.

So the magazine needs to cover Sky, Freesat, FTA and Freeview reception, with the emphasis on how to pipe TV to other rooms in HD. In addition, with "smart TVs" and "catchup" and streamed TV, the magazine needs to write about those features, too. Frankly, the magazine should do a deal with AVforums to get some decent articles on board, quickly!
 
My understanding is ..


....!

The picture you paint is only really from your perspective, we've found it pretty much impossible to keep up with motorised satellite installations, the market has in many ways gravitated towards the more plug & play with easy to use receivers & automatic motorised sat' systems coupled with a massive increase in the flat TV sales market, but at the same time there's the massively popular Linux/ e2 enthusiast market with loads of receivers & loads of images & 'software gadgets'.Also we've seen many enthusiasts that used to be into satellite in the early more gadget'y days have seen the big improvements & have come back into the satellite scene & all say the same thing - it's much better now , it was fun in the early enthusiast's days with early dishes/lnbs & motors, a handful of satellites & channels but it's far better now with so many satellites & channels plus Freesat's expansion has been a great boost to add to the movies & sports you can get on the arc. Multi LNB has dropped off & been mostly replaced by motors but 36v motorised & the bigger dishes do not seem to be slowing down either, although that isn't mainstream, it is more enthusiasts or commercial use.

I don't know what path What Satellite magazine should have taken or should take but I think they might have had a better take on the 'real' market as it is today - Although we'd get the odd copy in - I've not read it much because it always seems a 90%+ waste apart from the odd article.

Sky is too dominant here & many do think you just get Sky & that's it or you use Freeview / Freesat- it should never have been allowed to become so overwhelmingly dominant in one territory & that's far from just my opinion.
 
I'm sure the Internet is more to blame than anything else. Most of what was in wotsat is available constantly updated online for free...
 

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