Sky Sports News Switch To Paywall Pisses Off London and UK

Georgie Thompson of Sky Sports News 

UK based, British Sky Broadcasting-owned, Sky Sports News, in an effort to provide and pay for a planned 3D service via subscription revenues, has moved their free sports television service to a paywall today.

To be called "Sky Sports News HD," it is available on subscription services Sky, Virgin Media and Talk Talk TV. But for now, the free version's been shutoff, and, as one viewer put it on Twitter, "without even a goodbye."

The move has pissed off once-loyal viewers, who've taken to Twitter to express their outrage, thus making Sky Sports News one of the Top Trends on Twitter. Here's a sample of the Tweets:

proofspirit - Today is a dark day. Sky Sports News no longer available on Freeview. Might as well sell my TV. 3 minutes ago via Echofon

GManSizzle - RT @Arsenal_Away: Watching Sky Sports News till 6. Last time on Freeview, a most sad day indeed. RIP SSN channel 83 :'-(

andrewbrookes84 - At a bit of a loss without my morning fix of sky sports news

stephenackroyd - Sky Sports News HD looks a bit like an OTT, overly futuristic skin made by a 13 year old for Football Manager.

TheOfficialTom - Nooo sky sports have left freeview oopd I forgot about that
14 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

andyecfc - Love the new Sky Sports news.
15 minutes ago via web

DebbieAtherton = OMG what am I going to do now!!! Sky Sports News has gone from freeview!..not happy!...no I'm not paying for it either! 20 minutes ago via ÜberTwitter

stevelee23 - Bye bye sky sports news.... Very annoying.
21 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone

It's almost like the American reaction if none of our sports programs were free, and we had to pay to see what was happening.   The question is who will buy it?  With UK's current unemployment rate at almost 8 percent, it's hard to see the logic in installing a paywall and expecting consumers to give money to view sports when they have to save money for more important expenditures.