At the time, the QuickStart scheme seemed like a good thing. Over the years, it became clear that it was, in terms of security at least, a disaster. However there was a bright side in that it did encourage people to subscribe at the same time as purchasing their satellite tv system.
The new procedure is that the subscriber contract has to be sent back to the Sky subscriber centre. It is the Sky subscriber centre who will issue the card to the customer.
While it could be argued that this move makes the chain of card distribution safer, there is another aspect. It is one more step in reducing role of the Authorised Sky Agent.
Over the past few years, the commission received by the ASA dealer has dropped. The main concentration of Sky's marketing drive over the last few years was on the larger high street chain stores. Of course this could be seen as an attempt to have satellite television systems represented as a standard household appliance just like a cooker or a table.
The take up of satellite television in the UK has not been as rapid as Sky would have liked. Ireland is a different case as about 75% of the viewing population are on cable or MMDS systems. The UK is nowhere near that kind of figure so there is still room for satellite television a la Sky.
In their greed, it seems that Sky's marketing people overlooked one major factor - the battle for the hearts and minds of the dealers. It was the typical attitude of the eighties - greed. What these people in Sky seemed to neglect was that every disgruntled dealers was a potential third party smart card seller.
Some dealers did not sell third party cards but the economics of the situation were not so kind to others. With the advent of Phoenix, QuickStart cards were being sold for up to £60 each. It makes a lot of sense to sell something for £60 having paid £5 for it.
Perhaps it was the cumulative loss of millions of QuickStarts that forced Sky into suspending their QuickStart scheme. But the underlying motive may give some indication as to their intentions for the 0A.
Considering the number of 09 cards lost to piracy, Sky may have had no option but to suspend the QuickStart scheme. Their reserves of cards would have been running low as the 0A card was expected to be launched around April.
Instead with the 0A card delayed until at least September, the reserves would have to last - the best way to ensure this was by stopping the QuickStart scheme.
The resignation of Stephen Barden as head of News Datacom came as a surprise. The surprise being that he lasted in that position for so long.
The Ho Lee Fook hack, the assorted Season, the 09 hacks took place while he was in charge. Basically put he was probably very good at conducting the business affairs of News Datacom but was totally out of his depth with counter piracy operations.
It seems that his tenure was unfortunate enough to be pockmarked with piracy. It was a threat that his background was unaccustomed to handling. It seems that he was both a lawyer and a sociologist - the worst possible backgrounds for someone working in the Blackbox industry.
He did not seem to have any great appreciation of the technology nor those involved with it. But on the plus side he was probably responsible for giving News Datacom a stranglehold on the English language pay television market in Europe.