ITV Digital

From The Independent on Sunday:

Carlton and Granada, the shareholders in ITV Digital, have proposed a three-tier deal to the BBC and BSkyB which they hope will secure the future of their troubled digital TV venture.

The plan is for the main players in the digital TV market to offer three types of service, one free, one 'mid- priced' at about £20 a month, and one consisting of premium services, the sport and film channels, at £40 a month.

The free services would carry all existing free channels, as well as the new BBC3 youth channel, ITV 2 and some of BSkyB's channels, such as Sky News and Sky One.

The mid-priced service would have the likes of UK Drama, UK Gold, Discovery, Nickelodeon, the music channels and some sports channels, including the crucial ITV Sport, which carries the Champions League, and Sky Sports 1, which broadcasts English Premiership games. Both services would be offered on ITV Digital, which will not be competing head-to-head with BSkyB in premium pricing.

BSkyB will secure a deal to carry ITV Sport on its service, filling a crucial gap, and will be the only service to offer a full range of film channels.

The potential digital alliance, bringing together Carlton, Granada, the BBC and BSkyB, is already being discussed. Although it would have many hurdles to leap – not least pleasing the media and competition regulators – there is a desire to sort something out.

Carlton and Granada are under pressure from their shareholders to strike a deal that would bring ITV Digital closer to breaking even, or close the operation altogether. Charles Allen, Granada's chief executive, has a solution deadline of six months.

Last week BSkyB signalled it was ready to strike a deal. In separate presentations in New York, the chief executive Tony Ball and the company's finance director, Martin Steward, said it was their objective to get some Sky channels broadcast widely on a free-to-air service on British TV.

Analysts have also pointed out that BSkyB may run into trouble meeting its target of seven million subscribers by 2003. It most recent figures, for the end of September, were 5.5 million. Industry sources say they have added only 130,000 net new subscribers in October and November, which are usually strong months.

So, if this deal goes through we'll get to see Sky News FTA on ITV Digital and ITV Sport Channel on BSkyB.

Wasn't it bound to happen, though? Realistically BSkyB are in too strong a position to be beaten by an upstart.

I don't think we'll get to a stage where - and I don't think the government will allow us to get to this stage - BSkyB is in control of both DSAT and DTT operations, I think the bods in Brussels would also have something to say about that.

Does the ITV Sport Channel really have a future? Granada and Carlton have lost so much money on this one that when the next time the licenses come around, unless it's seeing a serious pick-up in viewers, I doubt they'll bother to bid and just close the bloody thing. I don't want to see Sky have a monopoly on sport, although I don't really care, but they do operate their channels in such a better manner than their rivals. They go to a lot more trouble to please the viewer.

Will the future of ITV Digital be secured with this deal? I know that if Sky News were to be available then I'd go and fit ITVD in my room, because fitting another satellite dish is out of the question.

With these new channels would ITV D really see a significant enough up turn in subscriber numbers to make it keep the shareholders happy, stop The Guardian moaning about it every 5 minutes and would it be enough for Granada and Carlton to afford to carry on running ITV D?

I think it just might be.

I thought UK Gold would become FTA?

so what exactly does this mean?

what box should i get and what am i going to pay if i upgrade to digital?

is ITVd merging with Sky or are they both going to stay as they are with similar pricing schemes or is ITVd going to change it's prices.

and what about ree boxes, do u have to pay for the box to get the FTA channels?

I feel that if ITV Digital need to make a profit or break even immediately, then they're playing the wrong game. Especially when they've just forked out millions to show 1 football teams live matches exclusively.

I have DTT, and am having to justify to myself every month that the subscription is worth it. As it stands presently I'm having problems justifying paying for the amount of trash on most of the channels. If ITVD are planning on raising the cost then I'm leaving the sinking ship.

There are pros & cons for all 3 digital platforms. I opted for DTT because there was no cable down my street at the time & I didn't want an ugly dish hanging from the side of my house.


(Edited by Techy Peep at 3:58 pm on Dec. 9, 2001)

My God c@t, you've started 2 topics on in 1 day !!!

I would imagine you would have to buy your boxes outright if you only wanted the FTA channels.

Expect to see a deal to carry ITV Sport Channel on BSkyB in the New Year, and Sky News on ITVD in return.

And which team would that be then ?

I know, I'm finding the forum a bit boring at the moment, full of crappy BBC topics that can muster about 4 posts in a week, so I thought I'd do something drastic.

If Sky News comes to ITVD then I know what I'm going to be buying with some of my Christmas money.

I can't see how Sky One can go free to air when it holds only the pay television rights to many of its programmes.

And yes, I thought the BBC/Flextech were keen to put the UKTV channels free to air. (The Digital Spy article at http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/displayarticle.php?id=4401 states the UKTV channels would come under the 'free' package - but then they usually gets things wrong anyway)

I think the only sensible future for DTT is for it to go fully free to air and leave the pay TV game to the cable companies and Mr Murdoch who have the channel capacity to support it.

(Edited by RW at 6:31 pm on Dec. 9, 2001)

Well we all know that the arrival of Sky News will happen sooner rather than later, so why not empty your piggy bank now and subscribe now in readiness. That way you'll get a monkey too, and you know how much you want that little fella. Oh you do..... you can't deny it.... you want monkey .... ah yes you do.... oh yes.

Funny about the UKTV channels, as DigitalSpy are reporting differently...

ITV Digital has proposed a tie-up with the BBC and BSkyB in an attempt to turn its fortunes around, The Independent On Sunday reports today.

The plan involves a three-tier service, comprising of a 'free' option (BBC-managed), a 'mid-priced' option (ITV) at around £20/mo, and a 'premium' service, consisting of Sky movie and sport channels.

The free service would carry all existing FTA channels, as well as several UKTV stations, Sky News, and possibly a 'lite' version of Sky One.

The proposal is currently under scrutiny and negotiation by the three players, and would be subject to approval by media and competition regulators

Hmmmm......

This sounds suspiciously like someone's put the wind up Mr Murdoch.

Think about it, lately the buzz has bee that, basically, the Primary channels would disappear and go FTA - that would make it increasingly difficult for Sky to justify charging for channels which are available free elsewhere (though that never stopped cable comapnies with CNNi) So they have stepped in to try and save their dominant position.

I hope the FTA platform idea goes ahead, probably a combination of FTA and add-on premiums like Sky Sports/Movies and FilmFour. That would certainly accellerate the takeup of digital TV.

As for the rights issue, yes it's a problem, but I don't see that it would be hard to negotiate a system of 'First Run' and 'Syndication' rights rather than the current 'Pay-TV' and 'FTA' rights - the principle would be the same.