20 Years of Digital TV

Some of it appears at the start of this, from the OnDigital launch day, complete with a little tour of the DTA...



All this talk of BBC digital promos reminds me just how many campaigns there were in that first decade. There was the famous 'scary' floating heads one, then an equally troubling series of ads involving people tearing off thier own faces to reveal BBC stars underneath, plus one involving puppet monkeys which in no way had any connection to the ITV Digital monkey. Apparently. Sure there were plenty of others in those early years, too.

That is, somewhat ironically, why I still find something like the 'Radio Times' useful. Its easy to catch a promo for an upcoming (series) but one off programmes are easier to miss, and magazines / websites are good for picking out the new and / or interesting. At a glance they are highlighted and you can have a quick look to see what's coming up. I still find that easier than scanning through an EPG. Then there are likes of TiVo or Sky Q that start to learn the things you like and point you towards them.

The other factor is that you learn the channels that are likely to offer things you're interested in. For example I know that programmes I'm going to ejoy are likely to be on one of just a few channels. I know I can safely ignore the vast majority of channels, but if they do happen to show something I'm interested in (like the 'Michael Palin in North Korea' programmes on Channel 5) its often highlighted by the Radio Times or a similar magazine / website. I can then record it and so when I want to watch something (that isn't a live sporting event) its there in a list infront of me.

My housemate at the time bought an IDTV and it had the ONdigital menus etc, just in a different colour and without the On logo.

I bought his old telly and used it with an ONdigital Philips set top box and it gave a much better picture quality. The IDTV looked like a set top box did when connected in composite mode, whereas I used RGB for mine. The handy thing was that I could take the subscription card out of my box and put it in his TV with no problems

His set didn't last that long apparently, I kept his second hand one for over a decade

There's a couple of brochures from the early days of digital here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127060723@N05/albums/72157647865640673

My parents did have a onDigital/ITV Digital box for a while. The only problem was that the signal would be interrupted by other appliances, like microwaves. The reception was quite poor and muddy, so I believe they only got Sky because they would've gotten it free at the time, killing onDigital in the process as well as the pirate cards.

I think the reason onDigital/ITV Digital collapsed was because they were desperate to win the monopoly on digital TV and desperate to get more coverage of football, when really what they should've been doing is focusing on their software and their packages.

There were loads of campaigns, all slightly overlapping, advertising digital in general, digital paid for services, digital channels, digital equipment etc etc.

Make sure you get the right TV that allows you to pick up just 7 extra channels

Yes - I also enjoyed spotting how the suggested cost of a Freeview box dropped over the decade of promotion. "...from around £150" dropped down to "£100", "£50" and eventually "£20".

I was absolutely fascinated by the launch of Freeview at the time - I was 10 when ITV Digital collapsed, and remember the release of that Pace FTV box just before its collapse, and then had just turned 11 when Freeview came along. I remember reading about it on the BBC News website, and have just dug up this comment thread which I remember well: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2373775.stm - some of those who said that Freeview would never take off were rather mistaken!!

As for my Freeview history, it was in December 2003 that my parents first got a Freeview box (a Sony VTX-D800U, which was a great box for its time) and then we moved over to BT Vision not long after its launch in 2007. And that's where my parents have been ever since (with the odd box upgrade in that time - they now have a YouView one). As for myself, I've stuck with a vanilla Freeview since leaving home, with the odd Now TV and Netflix month thrown in via IPTV.

So with all the old adverts, nobody remembers...BBC QUIRKE?



(It was obligatory in those days to write BBC channel names in ALL CAPS for some reason)

Meanwhile here in Ireland we didn’t get DTT for another 12 years, and it still only carries ten channels.

I have a newspaper TV guide from the On Digital launch week which has a wraparound promo for the launch, sadly it's in a box up in the loft right now, so I can't get it down to take scans of it.

Can anyone lend James a stepladder?

There's about 50 things up there we need a step ladder for

Are they the same scans as on the MHP Private Parts? Could download them and upload them here if you want.