ON DIGITAL TO BECOME ITV DIGITAL

From mediaguardian.co.uk -

Carlton and Granada are expecting the reorganisation of their ITV assets into three new divisions - ITV Channels, ITV Digital and ITV.com - to generate cost savings of £20m annually within two years.

'This is the most fundamental change in British broadcasting since the launch of multichannel television,' said the Granada chairman, Charles Allen.

'Granada and Carlton have forged a new partnership in ITV and are now bringing together the tremendous brand strength of ITV with the UK's digital terrestrial broadcasting platform.'

Michael Green, the chairman of Carlton, added: 'ITV will now leapfrog the BBC and Sky with this new partnership.

'A combined free-to-air and pay-television audience of 50m viewers a week offered entertainment, the internet and ecommerce is a world first.'

You point being what?
First of all, that was simply a bunch of quotes, nicely edited.
What do you expect them to say?
'We know that BSkyB will retain the market lead, we are simply doing this so we can fund our new sports channel, that wont actually have anything on worth watching and will be made up of repeats of the show jumping finals'
You also clearly missed a point that OnDigital has cut it's expected subscriber numbers from 2 million to 1.7.
And who's shares went down today?
Carlton and Granada's they plummeted, BSkyB also fell, but may I point out this was a totally unrelated issue.


'This is the most fundamental change in British broadcasting since the launch of multichannel television,' said the Granada chairman, Charles Allen.

What total utter rubbish, do you honestly think that anyone is going to care that ITV are having a reshuffle at network centre!

And here are some other figures you missed:

Cancellation rate (per year)
Ondigital - 22%
BSkyB - 9.8%


Ondigital announced 75,000 new subscribers in the first quarter, giving a total of 1.087 million.

But this falls someway short of the target two million expected by 2002.

The target has now been reduced to 1.7 million subscribers by 2003/2004.

It is also now predicted that the company will not break even until 2003/2004.
Ondigital launched its service to customers in November 1998, but has not matched the success of rival BSkyB in attracting subscribers.

And neither will ITV Digital, the fact is Carlton and Granada have been advertising OnDigital like mad, yet have failed miserably, ITV Digital will do exactly the same.
It will not offer anything new, and it will only go to confuse people who wanted a 'simple' way to get digital TV.

OK, no real point really, just providing a source of information relevant to this topic, seeing as though it is titled ONDIGITAL TO BECOME ITV DIGITAL, and you seem to have diverted the topic somewhat.  I haven't edited the quotes at all, the piece has been lifted exactly as it appeared.  

Ok, so ONdigital has struggled to meet it's expected susbscriber numbers, so what do you expect them to do ? At least this offers a solution and will significantly increase subscription numbers and reduce the churn rate.  

The comments you make about the Sports Channel are also incorrect.  ITV have the rights to show live Champions League, Nationwide League (from Sky) and Worthington Cup as well as Premiership highlights, and 40 live pay-per-view Premiership games.  Don't think any of the dross screened on Sky Sports will be gracing the screens of ITV Sports Channel.  ITV & ITV Digital will have more live football than any other network.  

And chill man, think about your blood pressure, you get way too excited.

(Edited by square eyes at 9:23 pm on April 25, 2001)

That is just the thing, it will not reduce the churn rate, because of the fact that ITV Digital will be exactly the same as OnD, it will not offer anything new just rebranded, people will still be unhappy with it!

The fact that Sky Sports is now the largest sports network in the entire world speaks for itself really, how many people have heard of the ITV sports channel.
ITV will still be showing the Champions league matches on ITV, and something for you to think about.

Originally Sky signed a contract with Carlton (not Granada) that they would provide their channels to DTT, this was before Sky was told it had to leave the group, by the ITC, hence Granada's involvement.
This contract runs out in 2002.
ITV Digital as it is to be called will have to renew this agreement, I would fully expect that Mr Chance at Sky will simply tell ITVD to clear off, unless they show their sports channels on Sky, can you imagine what it would do if they pulled Sky Sports off ITVD?
This will not significatly increase the uptake of the platform, this will not stop people from seeing that they can get a better service elsewhere, it will simply rebrand an already poor performing company.

Ok firstly ONdigital has achieved 1m subscribers faster than any other comparable platform and it's churn rate is lower than all other pay television operators at an equivalent point from launch.

Secondly, you obviously know nothing about ONSport programming and ITV. ITV currently show some live Champions League football on ITV, ONSport have the rest. ITV show one live match a week, but this season, there have been 2 more involving British teams shown ONsport, these will be shown on ITV Sport Channel, not to mention all the other matches not involving British teams. Secondly, ITV's sports portfolio is a growing one, whilst Sky's is diminishing. (loss of Nationwide League next season), they simply don't have the rights to the top class sports that viewers want to see, apart from Live Premiership rights. The Premiership is the only reason that viewers subscribe to Sky Sports not to watch Aerobics, snowboarding or windsurfing. More people watch sport on BBC, ITV or Channel 4. If I was ITV I wouldn't want this sports channel to go on Sky, as it will prove a big attraction for many non-digital subscribers to ITV's service.

Firstky let me say, all this is just a change of name and the other parts have been known for some time. The fact still remains that if I say to people ITV Digital they will reply with what ITV, ITV 2, and not think of a package service. Anyway people subscribe to Sky Sports for other reasons than football, ok so its the largest but there are a varied range, they have quality covreage and innovate with their coverage. ITV are know for being below par, and will only have football and less of what people really want. OnDigital have done nothing but bang on about football and are now in trouble, it looks like they are just going to continue.

Oh no, they lost the nationwide league, what about Rugby, Cricket and athletics, all far more interesting than football.
Sky also offers interactive sports coverage, when did ond do that?
The fact is if YOU knew anything about Sky and the buildup to digital TV then you would know (I do, because I have read the books written about it by the editor of the Guardian Media section) that Sky have put more effort into sport than any other broadcaster in the world, and hence the subscriber numbers reflect that.
OnD's churn rate is higher because people get the service and are not happy with what they see, ond has more than double the churn rate of SkyD, why?
Because people get Sky and find out that it is a better service.
If anyone is offering a static prospect to sport it is ondigital, not developing interactive services, incidentally 2 new interactive services are to be added to Sky Sports this season, Sky's portfolio of sport is not at all dimishing, if anything it is increasing, far more than that of ITV's, if the public wanted all of this 'top class sport' then explain why more people are not going to OnD, and why SkyD is the fastest growing digital satellite system in the world, and why more people cancel their OnD services than they do their Sky ones?
You can't, because your arguement simply doesn't stand up!
Go away, have a think and make up another pile of rubbish that you evidently know nothing about.
The fact is, even though OnD have told us time and time again that they offer more sport, people obviously don't want the sport they offer, if they did, then their subscriber figures would be much higher than they are, and they would not have to cut subscriber estimates, whereas Sky actually beat their estimates!
We shall see, when ITV Digital is in the news for falling subscriber numbers and when they are loosing money, I will be the one having the last laugh, the fact that they have two giants, one of which didn't even want to be in the digital tv industry in the first place (Granada) and another one which has no clue about branding (Carlton) just goes to show what a pathetic little team this is going to be.

I think you will find that the biggest draw to Sky Sports is Premiership Football. ITV also have Formula 1 which is recognised as an innovative and first class product, football coverage will also improve next year with an impressive increased portfolio. There will also be ATP Tennis on ITV Sport. ITV's Champions League coverage is excellent, and has gained ITV the largest football audience of the year. Viewers are not stupid and will soon recognise ITV as a package service, there will be no getting away from this as cross promotion on ITV will be rife.

sky digi cannot be beaten for sports, movies and entertainment any where in the world, hence the reason british television is so popular around the world.

Actually, ITV will not be able to advertise their service too much, otherwise they will get killed by the ITC.
The biggest draw to SS is the premiership, because that is what people actually want to see!
The important Champions League games are put on ITV and the other pile of trash is put on OnSport.
Formula 1, very good, but it is again being offered a static prospect, if Sky had the rights to F1, they would have offered different camera angles and views from drivers by now, not so with ITV and Ond.
Of course ITV has gained the highest audience figures for football you idiot, when was the last time Sky Sports was available in 100% of homes?
Don't you think if they got rid of Channel 5 and put on Sky Sports instead that Sky Sports would get by far the largest viewing figures! Of course they would.
And David's point is very true, Sky Digital has more sports channels available and more sports services available than OnD it has more movie channels, more entertainment, the only thing OnD could offer me is ITV2 which shows repeats of rubbish and things like the letterman show, gosh.

Well there is no hiding from the fact that football is the biggest draw to sports viewers in the UK, it is the national sport. The largest viewing figures on TV for sport is for football. ITV Digital viewers will get all of the sports that you talk about on Sky Sports, plus all of the additional ones available only on ITV Digital. By the way, cricket coverage is far superior on Channel 4, and Rugby is suffering from the popularity of football. ITV Digital are offering a different sports package to that which ONdigital offered. It will be ITV branded Champions League, Nationwide League, Premiership (neither of which were available ONdigital), it is a completely different product. Also ONdigital & ITV have been providing interactive football for the last 3 months, and further interactive services will be developed. Many people will be drawn by this new ITV Sport service. ITV Sport already broadcasts to a majority share of the audience, and is instantly recognisable, Sky's audience for football is minute in comparison.

And anyway, I did not get Sky Digital so I could watch sport, I have had Sky since 1992, and I know that we originally got the service for it's sports coverage.
However, I do not enjoy watching football, I find it a pathetic sport and cannot see why everyone loves it so.
However, I do want to watch news, what does OnD offer me?
News24 and ITN, so we don't have any news channels on the service then.
Sky Digital offers me, Sky News, News24, ITN, BBC Parliament, Bloomberg, CNBC, Sky Business (soon), The Money Channel, Sky Sports.com TV (if I want to find out about sports news).

All about choice, OnD doesn't have any of that.