i t v DIGITAL is almost gone now!

What Time will the ITV Digital Transmitter will Switch Off

They will not switch of Mark because they will continue to be used for your normal analogue transmissions in the meantime as well as at least the current FTA digital channels such as BBC FOUR and ITV2 etc.

The only thing that will happen is the current subscription service will no longer exist if the plug is pulled on ITV Digital - or somebody else might have a go at it and try and avoid the massive mistakes Carlton and Granada have made (even I accept they've made a few). DTT in some form will always exist as an alternative to DSat and DCable, just as tellestrial has run alongside the old Sky and cable services for over the past decade.

That's something which nobody, including probably ITV Digital at this point, knows. As I said earlier, if things go ahead as planned we should know much more on Friday.

Anyway, the 'transmitters' will not be shut off as such. The non-ITV Digital services (All BBC channels, ITV1, ITV2, C4, C5, S4C, Teletext, any others?) will definiately keep going and I'm sure some plans will be drawn up to keep as much else as possible going. It also may well not be an immediate shut down of ITV Digital (although that is being talked about more and more) but a winding down of services over a period of perhaps a month or two, by which time a more concerte replacement might be sorted out.

Hopefully if ITVD does shut down it won't take as long for a replacement to get going as it took for the ITC to award a replacement for 5 Text and subsequently Teletext to get it on air.


By the way, one thing that is being overshadowed by the ITV Sports Channel mess is that ITV Active is in very serious trouble right now. It is in very imminent danger of collapse and may discontinue at any time, long before any closure of ITV Digital.

Well I just feel I have to laugh at ITV. Had the service hit this huge scandal under the ON Digital name, I wouldn't have found it so sweet.

What I find good is that ITV's name was slapped on the service to try and make it look better. Now that its in trouble, its ITV's reputation as a whole which is going to suffer. Serves them right I say!!

It now looks possible that the BBC will step in with some sort of package to save DTT.

This from Waveguide.

Anytime on Saturday afternoon if that's fine with you, just as Angus Scott is getting into his stride telling you the latest Premiership scores.

Yeah, I bet they are wishing they had never rebranded now - hardly anyone realised that ONdigital was owned by two ITV companies (which they used to their advantage during the rebrand - describing it is 'joining forces with ITV' as though it was some merger when it was never anything more than a change of name).

I don't know if they'll go for an immediate shut down or not. Surely they still have contracts to carry channels which are still valid. If they stop new subscriptions, and stop any possibility of new channels (as Sky did to kill of Sky Analogue) would it actually make them more money to keep a small number of staff to maintain the service as it stands, and just allow the channels to disappear as each contract expires (I assume that they're renewed yearly?).

I'm hoping for an announcement about their closure, giving enough time for a new company to buy up the space and do it properly this time, but not leaving existing subscribers in the lurch in the meantime.

And is it only me who thinks that this 'one mux for premium channels' is precisesly the wrong group of channels to carry? If they must have only one multiplex for pay tv, then surely things like Sky One and UK Gold would be better choices and more popular than Sky Premier or Sky Sports?

Yes, I reported this in the BBC Digital? Thread.

Did anyone in the north west listen to Key 103 FM this morning at 8.00. Well I just got up and heard the dj's waffling about stuff until one of them said that they got their grandmother an ITV Digibox and then she later said that this was crap. I thought it was quite funny. Though it's true. They shouldn't have bought something they couldn't afford.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002130832,00.jpg

LOL!!

Oh, sorry Benjiman, wasn't expecting somebody to start another thread about what we're discuusing here.

Nice of you to add a credit for Waveguide now though. Thanks.