i t v DIGITAL is almost gone now!

BSkyB's business practices and those of their parent company are always coming into question, and I feel that if BSkyB were to control DTT, it would give them more control than they should have over the digital television market.

Let's not forget for a moment, that BSkyB themselves are not exactly making a lot of money with Sky Digital - it has cost them dearly to give their set top boxes away for free and they have yet to break even with 5 million subscribers, IIRC.

In my original statement, I said that the BBC, ITV, and perhaps the Government should pull together to bail out DTT. As some may already be aware, there is already a BBC-ITV consortium called 'Boxco' that will pull together to provide the 15 FTA channels for those with the Pace £99 adaptor.

For the pay-TV market, it would be the most sensible approach for Boxco to be given control of this as well.

I think that the television football rights bubble is now bursting. Some clubs are paying more than their entire revenue just on their player's wages.

If ITV Digital subscribers want to blame anyone, they should blame greedy footballers. They've never been worth what they have been paid.

It's happened! The deal with ITV and the footy is off! Just said so on Channel5.co.uk !!!

I have to say Carlton and Granada are really bad at making a success at things out of their field.

Granada have had many failures: Granada Talk TV, Granada Goodlife, Granada Breeze, Wellbeing, Shop!

Carlton are the same with CFN!

Why did they have to venture out of their original field? It was bound to fail as they only know about making their ITV regions (which, again is done really badly with the generic look for all their own regions). Sky are the only corporation I know that have successfully done this. Even the BBC have failed miserably with some of their services.

What will happen to the customers of ITV Digital if it goes into Liquidation? Will they just be left one day with no digital TV or will another company take it over?

Like said previously in this thread:
Welcome to British ITV Digital Sky Broadcasting which will probably be called either

a) British Digital Terrestrisal Sky Broadcasting or
b) Murdoch Digital

I used to laugh at the old SkyOne idents where the announcer wouldhave to gabble 'This is Sky one, a Part of the British Sky Broadcasting Network'

What WOULD be interesting to see would be either

a) Carlton pulls out of ITVD making Granada sell it for a cheap price, and then Carlton buys the whole lot.

or

b) Anglia and Border in a joint venture to bring DTT to our homes.

(Edited by chrisb at 10:06 pm on Mar. 21, 2002)

Nobody in their right mind will take over that heap of hits, with the 's' at the other end.

Well said Eddie.  Continuity Announcers get knocks for only doing about ninety minutes work in a shift, but they don't earn ANYWHERE like the stupid salaries that footballers get.

Roll on the terrestrial digital free-to-air boxes for the basic channels and the rest of the fools who went for On-Digital, ITV Digital, or whatever, can join those great people who proudly announce that they've still got a Squarial in the garage.

It's like horse racing, you place your bet, you sometimes win, you sometimes don't.  Those who bet on ITV Digital, probably also had BSB, Betamax and a Vauxhall Viva.


(Edited by Nick Harvey at 10:13 pm on Mar. 21, 2002)

It is clear that the golden age of ITV is over.

Advertising revenue is falling, the news service is faltering, even an awful breakfast TV service that has never been as appealling as its predecessor (IMHO), and frankly the branding practices that have gone on to please shareholders etc., (e.g. renaming Central to Carlton), have been very questionable.

It might be argued that all of this started on 1st January 1993.

The 'Hearts idents', utterly banal - I wonder how many 'focus groups' they ran that past beforehand. The truth is, when they were introduced on LWT originally, they became the worst idents in the station's history.

As the big players in ITV, I think that Carlton and Granada must have felt that they were the natural people to bring DTT to the masses. At the time, BSkyB were trying to start up DSat, so they had no interest in DTT.

It's easy to say 'why did they have to do it' but look at the dot com boom and bust. Lots of hype in the beginning, but when it comes down to it, the business models don't work well.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing.

I am surprised that the BBC hasn't done a shade better for its digital TV services - but then they don't deserve to if they are plastering DOGs all over them.

Does this mean that Monkey's gonna die?

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

What's Square Eyes gonna do if Monkey gets culled?

don't panic monkey fans!

i've already placed a bid of 47p for him. :

On ITV News at Ten there was a short report, but no mention of the financial trouble ITV Digital is in.

[rant]
Hope ITV Digital and its two owners go out of business. Serve them right for ruining ITV and just about everything else they touch. Can they do anything right? RAtings down, channels like Granada Breeze closed, ad revenue down. Let's face it you're no good at running ITV and all your other stupid little ventures. Stick to one or the other preferably your other stupid ventures and leave the majority of us who couldn't give a flying f*** about ITV Digital with a decent ITV 1 service.
[/rant]

[wheezes] thank you....


(Edited by TWO ident at 11:34 pm on Mar. 21, 2002)


(Edited by TWO ident at 11:35 pm on Mar. 21, 2002)

I think that the BBC is right to be cautious about venturing too far into it's digital services, as I believe this is a part of the reason for ITV's downfall - as many others have said ITV has tried to be too much! They should have stuck to their tv channels - they're not Sky and they never will be! (they'll never be as mighty as the BBC either, no matter how much they brand their main channel with a 1)


(Edited by benjiman at 10:41 pm on Mar. 21, 2002)