An interesting article from Media Guardian...

Peter Bazalgette, former chairman of Endemol
I think satellite has been wholly positive. The amount of choice that you have in any given hour is quite extraordinary compared to what it was like with just two or three channels. Now you can watch any genre at any hour whether it's a documentary, a movie, a drama or something being repeated (no bad thing). It enriches our life.
The competition for viewers has led to companies like BSkyB paying huge sums of money for premium rights sports in order to sign up subscribers. This means a vast injection of money into sport.
Where multi-channel satellite providers have been utterly revolutionary is in allowing viewers to make their own schedules with products like Sky+. As a result, this year we are watching more television than last year. On balance, it has been a positive culturally and economically.

Read the rest at....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/no ... television