Steve Fenton

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Friday, 26th June 2009

Have you ever wondered why we don't have all those futurisitc products that they thought up in the 1950s? The hover-cars, jet packs and holographic televisions that seemed so achievable and that still haven't yet arrived.

Well, the reason we can't have any of this stuff is really simple. It's down to over-regulation.

At this point, things get quite a lot less advanced and sci-fi and much more down to Earth, so if I've fooled you into reading this on the basis that you're a Star Trek fan, please accept my apologies.

About four or five years ago, I subscribed to Sky TV. I paid the extra to get the sports pack and enjoyed watching the top-flight football that was available on the Sky Sports channels. Things got even better when they started showing almost every match - either live or behind the red button later on in the day.

It all went wrong when Ofcom forced the Premier League into splitting the rights to allow another provider to show some matches. This was heralded as "breaking the monopoly" that Sky had over Premier League matches. What it acually meant for real consumers was that we either had to pay another £15 a month or miss a load of football.

What made it worse was the it was now impossible to find extended highlights of the matches shown on other channels, which made things really frustrating when you've grown accustomed to following your team week-in, week-out. What on Earth were Ofcom thinking? Heaven knows.

If you really want to watch your team, you'd surely rather pay for one set of premium channels, not two?

Furthermore, they're now trying to force Sky into sharing it's channels with other providers at a regulated price. Hang on... Sky have spent time and money setting up all this satellite television and investing in the technology and now they have to give up their income from their work?

Perhaps now you can see how this relates back to the original point. Someone like Sky creates something amazing and futuristic - television that can be beamed to a dish and appear on your screen with a box that records all your shows automatically so you can watch them whevenever you like... and they are treated like an evil corporation because they want to make money from it!

You have to be able to make money from innovative products and services - otherwise nobody would invest money in creating them. It really is that simple.

So if you ever wondered why you don't have your hover-car just yet, blame "Ofcar".