This has been brewing for a few years. Not sure if you all remember the failed launch of Quest on Freeview? Well i have it on good authority that it was Sky that was the reason behind this. Discovery planned to launch Quest with a range of programming that had only just aired or was about to air on the main Discovery channels. Sky got its legal team involved as they believed that Discovery were in breach of contract with regards to showing its content on other channels.
Discovery had to basically scrap 80% of its proposed line up and had to ready different content for Quest which is why it took a few months after the original date to come on air.
Sky have also reduced the amount it pays to some other content providers which is one of the reasons Home appeared on Freeview. Sky wanted to pay a certain amount for the UKTV channels which like we have seen with Discovery was lower then the current amount. The agreement was Home would not be included in the new deal therefore making it available for Freeview when previously it was part of a pay tv deal with Sky that prevented that.
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Originally Posted by Aguero9320
A potential tactic for Discovery to take is to close down Quest and allow DMAX to go FTA.
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That may not be needed the Tru Tv slots on Freeview are up for sale and people on Digitalspy seem to think it was Discovery who were the highest bidders. My inital thought was that Eurosport or a version of would come to Freeview due to Discovery need to broadcast a percentage of its Olympics coverage on Freeview. However i am wondering in if in the mean time they may use this for DMax.