I seem to remember that Virgin were one of the bidders for Channel 5 the second time around. I think their plan was a bit BBC Worldy - half an hour of news at the top of the hour followed by half an hour of factual programming.
I also recall that one of the bidders one of the times was City TV from Canada (or was this the model for the Thames bid? aggh, I can't remember!) but anyway, the idea was a network of stations broadcasting regional and networked programmes to Britain's major cities. A bit like Channel One and the city versions of L!VE TV, both of which are no longer with us.
As for ONdigital, as someone said, Sky News was going to be originally part of the package, broadcasting from midnight to midday with a crime channel (probably the Carlton Eye mentioned) on for the rest of the day.
(Edited by Blake Connolly at 6:41 pm on Dec. 16, 2001)
Carlton did, whether you want to believe it or not, pump a hell of a lot of money into the concept of a DTT system for the UK. Yes, it was mostly developed by the BBC, but it certainly wouldn't be at the stage it's currently at if Carlton hadn't spent so much time looking into it.
I think you're wrong C@T. Have a look here. It lists all the DVB consortium.
Maybe you could further your argument and tell us how Carlton were involved with DTT? Apart from providing programmes I can't find any reference to them being involved.
(Edited by Techy Peep at 7:26 pm on Dec. 16, 2001)
'...some ITV companies had been looking at DTT for 5 years or more, as a way of getting into pay television'
'...Carlton had put a team on DTT in 1996, even before it made its failed bid for the rights to the Premier League'
'Green's [Carlton's Chairman] optimism was matched by that of Nigel Walmsley, his director of broadcasting, who helped to put together the early business plans prior to the bid. 'We invested time, effort and resources looking at the business,' Green said. 'I asked people to go full throttle and look at every angle Once I knew the good and bad points of DTT, then I would make a decision.'
'...Chisholm [Sam Chisholm] suggested a 50/50 split for the new [DTT] company, to be called British Digital Broadcasting. An agreement in principle was reached and Chisholm left for a holiday in New Zealand.'
'Gerry Robinson, chairman of Granada, was astonished to learn from his own market sources that Carlton and BSkyB were going into DTT together.'
'Robinson rang Chisholm in New Zealand and asked if it was true... He immediately asked for a stake for Granada'
Chisholm agreed, and put the idea of Granada joining to Carlton...
'Carlton had gone from a position where they were driving the whole DTT process, to a point at which they were controlling just one third.'
'BSkyB said Granada would have to be accomodated or they would pull out of the deal' - sorry, I did get this point wrong. It wasn't the case that BSkyB invited Granada in directly because they knew that they would be taken out by the ITC.
About Carlton Eye, this was to be a truncated version of Sky News supplied to Carlton. Because BSkyB were removed from the consort it didn't happen.
So that means Carlton mearly provided the commercial muscle as part of a team with BSkyB to bring DTT to the marketplace? Therefore they weren't involved in the concept?
From all accounts, they didn't really do anything. The transmission chain and facilities for example were run by Castle Communications. All Carlton seem to have done is put cash into it & let others run it for them.
UKTV (not the current UKTV Flextech thing)
- They based there bid on a Live TV style format (not as downmarket) from one office style studio, continuity and news etc. Were tipped as winners
New Century Television - Sky bid
I`m sure there was one more, though cant remember. Leeds library still have the original documents, worth a look.
LS
Larry Scutta
c@t posted:
Quote: from Larry Scutta on 12:53 am on Dec. 16, 2001
>Even hough it was written years before digital TV?
Not sure which book you've been reading. It has about 2 chapters about digital TV in mine and the bidding rounds.
Sky High which was published in about 1996... that's about when I read it anyway
LS
Larry Scutta
c@t posted:
'...some ITV companies had been looking at DTT for 5 years or more, as a way of getting into pay television'
'...Carlton had put a team on DTT in 1996, even before it made its failed bid for the rights to the Premier League'
Still doesn't mean that they put any money into the invention of DTT, just that as soon as they could they started working on a bid.
DTT started public service in 1998, the licenses were awarded in 1997 and therefore it was already invented in 1996.... when Carlton 'put a team on DTT'!!
And when did I say Carlton had helped to invent DTT? I don't recall.
As I said, Carlton did put a lot of time and effort into DTT and DTT would not be at its current stage if they hadn't done that... I can't see what the problem is.
GR
thegreenfairy
My reading of it is that Carlton began putting a team together to work on a DTT *service* in 1996, what would eventually become BDB/Ondigital/ITVdigital, but the actual technical side they were not involved in.
GR
thegreenfairy
My reading of it is that Carlton began putting a team together to work on a DTT *service* in 1996, what would eventually become BDB/Ondigital/ITVdigital, but the actual technical side they were not involved in.