In the next month or so three of the main TV companies will launch new channels on Freeview, Digital Cable and Digital Satellite - but which channel do you think is set to be the best addition to the line-up.
We have "Adult Entertainment" from More4, with dramas, documentaries and lifestyle programming.
ITV4 will be aimed at men, with programmes including the new version of Kojak plus Champions League Football and boxing.
Sky Three will offer archive Sky programming plus travel and lifestyle commissions, along with the free to air premiere of 24.
So which channel do you think will be the greatest asset to digital TV - and in particular Freeview?
They're all welcome additions to digital TV, especially compared to the majority of channels launching these days, but ITV4 and Sky 3 will mostly be things we've seen before, More4 will have a lot of new stuff (and I'm looking forward to being able to watch The Daily Show every night again!).
More4 is quite a natural progression from C4, as it basically covers everything E4 doesn't. As one C4 exec put it, while they dubbed E4 as "C4 without the boring bits", More 4 is "C4 without the silly bits".
I think next is Sky Three, well certainly for Freeview viewers. A free general channel from Sky offering archive Sky One programming - most of which has not been seen Free to air before - is a welcome alternative, and a far better service than Sky Travel.
I do think though ITV4 is just being launched for the sake of it, and too soon after ITV3. Most of the programming could easily be scheduled on ITV2 or ITV3 - and vastly improve their schedules too! ITV would be better off boosting the budgets of their current digital channels rather than launching ITV4 - and there is already talk of ITV5 as well!
However, having said that I think the new ITV Kids channel, which will timeshare with ITV4, will probably be a good thing for Freeview, giving an alternative to CBeebies and CBBC.
More4 sounds and looks like the best one, as it has the most originality with More4 News, The Daily Show etc, but it is also the most highbrow, which is a good thing as very few Commercial channels aim to be highbrow, so this is one I am looking foward to.
Next would be ITV4, though people say it's going to be repeats repeats and more repeats, I can't see this being the case, as they've shown they've got some good Sport in the line-up (nicked from ITV2 of course) and some good US imports that aren't shown on other UK Channels, also note it isn't on 24 hours, which hopefully means more can get spent into programming. Frankly I can't see many ITV1 repeats heading onto ITV4 other than Sports and Films, considering alot of ITV1 output doesn't fit ITV4's audience.
Then the last would be Sky Three, they seem to be flogging a dead horse with this one, just more ancient repeats taken off Sky One, with a mix of the current Sky Travel, I don't know how it's going to survive considering that Sky Two (currently Sky Mix) is just repeats of Sky One programmes. But let's wait and see....
There is a definate strategy here by some of the main players to launch new channels just for the sake of it. The only one I can see that has any credible reason for existing is More4.
Sky Three may be a nice idea if Sky created specific genres for their intended 3 main entertainment channels. At the moment Sky Mix/Two is merely a repeats channel - and sometimes at the weekend actually behaves more like a "+1" channel for some Star Trek series.
ITV 3 is simply an FTA version of "Granada Plus" and ITV 4 will only be "Men & Motors" by another name until GSB/ITV close that channel as they did with PLUS.
It's still only the same number of programmes, just being recycled under a different channel name.
It's about time someone launched a channel with decent original programmes, or in 10 or 20 years time we will be back to just 4 or 5 main broadcasters producing decent viewing, and an expanse of redundant numbers on the EPG
There is no need for an ITV-4 to be launched. ITV-2 and ITV-3 are utter crap. In fact all satellite channels are crap and appeal to a very small minority of people.
ITV 4 and More 4 for me, Sky Three wont be giving us anything new.
I suppose it'll be giving something new for those people with Freeview and no access to Sky One - there's quite a few people out there who are looking forward to season 3 of 24, for example.
But, yeah, for the majority of viewers at the moment who'll have access to Sky Three, there'll be nothing new. I don't like the name though, but I suppose on Freeview it'll make you feel like you're missing the other two channels and perhaps that's the point.
