Why aerials are cheaper

In his letter “Sky provides a digital solution” (MW October 28), Tim Worral of Sky asks what ONdigital is afraid of? Nothing at all is the honest reply.

We too believe in customer choice – the choice of the most popular programming at the most competitive price without complex pricing plans and programme packages.

Certainly it is true that we “only” upgrade the aerial system of a building, but this is because, unlike the Sky solution to reception of multi-channel TV, that’s all we have to do. In the vast majority of cases we don’t need to recable buildings and the work takes a matter of hours instead of weeks. And of course, everyone in a building wants to get TV through an aerial – that can’t be said of satellite.

There is of course another issue – cost. Not only can we make a building digital-ready in a couple of hours, we can do it for an average cost of less than &£20 per home. Compare that with Worral’s average of &£150 and we think you’ll agree there’s not much competition there. After all, why pay more than you need to?

No Tim, we’re not afraid – but your protest suggests you are.

Andrew Marre

ONdigital

London SW8