Mark Daniels: To Sky or Not To Sky, that's my question

On the one hand, I'd quite like to be able to offer my customers the ability to watch Sky in the pub, but on the other Sky's pricing model is quite restrictive and could be the expense that tips my finely balanced cashflow scales in the wrong direction.

And I'm just a small village pub; the prices quoted to me are, admittedly, much lower than some I hear bandied about by other, larger, pubs, but they're still a large chunk of my turnover, with no guarantee that I'm going to get enough business through the door to even cover the cost of the service.

With finances getting tighter, pubs continuing to close at a faster rate than Kerry Katona's bank accounts and supermarket deals enticing people to stay at home and drink, Sky are going to have to do something drastic to keep their commercial business in place.

And they think they are, by offering loyal Sky Business customers exclusive access to their new 3DTV service early next year. The idea is simple, at first glance: it's a great way for Sky to showcase their new service before they launch it on the domestic market, and it allows pubs to offer an extra dimension to their viewing customers.

Very interesting.

Except that a) the choice of words "loyal Sky pub subscribers" kind of intimates that if I were to be interested in taking the plunge and subscribing to Sky in the pub, 3DTV wouldn't be offered to me; and b) it will almost certainly mean an extra premium on the commercial subscription, a fee that doesn't appear to have been made clear yet.

I have domestic Sky in my home, yet I refuse to pay extra for the HDTV service because, whilst I don't mind paying for the hardware, I don't see the sense in paying an extra subscription for channels I'm already paying to receive. Especially as I'm already quite happy with the picture quality.

The same goes for 3DTV. If we're already paying through the nose for the commercial rights to broadcast the channels, why should we pay more to receive them again?

That's without the other costs incurred - 3DTV may seem like a great idea, if you wish to watch pornography in the privacy of your own home, but the technology only works if you have a new 3DTV television set, which won't be cheap. That's another expense loyal Sky pubs will have to incur, and seems pointless if you're an establishment that uses a projector and screen to show footie in full size, not to mention irritating if you've just shelled out on a new HDTV.

And it's important to remember that, despite all the advancements in 3D technology and the recent flurry of fluffy 3D Disney films this year, you still need to wear glasses to get the full effect, even with your shiny new telly. Can you imagine a pub full of beer swilling football fans all staring at a screen through a set of 1950's specs?

The image is laughable, and just gives the punters an extra missile to throw at your expensive new television in the event of their team not winning.

3DTV might work for some, but if Sky want to help the pub trade and grow their respective businesses they need to stop looking at gimmicks with expensive hidden costs and look at their current pricing structure. Iain Holden, Managing Director of Sky Business, admits they have to look at the way they price and license their service and agrees that the current rateable value calculation is now unfair to some pubs - but they seem to be struggling to come up with an acceptable solution.

Perhaps they ought to look at the market they are aiming for in more detail. Many of us would love to put Sky in, but the cost is either a) too prohibitive or b) the service is an unknown quantity: would it really bring in enough extra punters?

Committing to a service for a minimum of twelve months at full price is too much for a lot of us - if Sky would allow a shorter contract, such as three or even six months to allow us to evaluate the costs and benefits to our business, that would be palatable. Or even a Pay-Per-View system where we could pick and choose sporting events that we know will draw in the customers, priced at something acceptable for one-off events.

Domestic customers get offered all sorts of deals and incentives to get them to sign up, or to stay if they're thinking of leaving; when I called Sky recently for a business quotation the girl at Sky was so inflexible she might as well have been an ironing board.

Throw us an incentive, give us the opportunity to try the service and see if it'll work for our business, make it more affordable for the smaller pubs.

Any of these would help sway me towards putting Sky in my pub. But 3DTV won't, although I am trying to convince the wife it's a good idea for the bedroom...