ITV Acquires SDN

ITV have acquired SDN Networks

ITV now have 25% of the Capacity of the DTT Platform

Stock Exchange announcement

That's an interesting development. Is multiplex A the one with all the shopping channels on it ? Presumably if they are on short term contracts, this will give ITV quicker access to extra space on the Freeview platform.

EDIT: Just realised that price-drop etc. are on five's space on SDN aren't they ? I'm confused.

Isn't Multiplex A also the one that Top TV channels use ? Wonder if they are a target for ITV next ?

This is quite interesting. Seeing as SDN's mux is currently not part of Freeview, and recent rumours of ITV joining the Freeview consortium, could this mean Freeview might now encompass the whole DTT platform? Could this have implications for Top-up TV if ITV does join the Freeview consortium?

So what are they going to call their mux then?

ITV Digital?

If they were to join the consortium they'd have to change to 16QAM no?

They may be wanting SDN so they and C4 could spread their channels over the two muxes therefore allowing them to keep a decent quality compression on their channels (they'd be below ITVd levels if they tried to squash all that onto a 16 Mux)

Of course this would also have the effect of rendering all that work on the ntl compression useless.

A bit more info here :

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=24544

That was my first thought as well.

Went hunting the Ofcom small print from last time round, but couldn't find it.

Where's noggin when you need him?

Incidentally the shopping channels are contracted on there until 2010, so I wouldn't hold my breath to see a [welcome] end to them any time soon.

I see they already think they can squeeze in an extra channel by 2007 - that be 10 channels on Mux A.

Nice to be needed - but not sure I can shed that much light.

The Freeview consortium - which bid for the three ex-ITV Digital multiplexes, the BBC getting one and Crown Castle getting two with Sky providing content - based their bid on 16QAM to extend reception.

However I don't think ITV joining Freeview means a definite switch of the D3/4 Mux 2 and the SDN/C5 Mux A to 16QAM.

I'm not clear whether ITV have bought the whole of Mux A - and if they have full control of Mux 2. Presumably C4 and Teletext have some control of Mux 2 via D3/4 (the operating company for Mux 2?) - and Five presumably have some say about Mux A?

They've apparently bought SDN Limited, the owner and multiplex operator of "A". Although the outright owner, as you point out C5 and S4C do each have 25% reserved capacity on MuxA, gifted by virtue of their ITC license in line with the original Ministerial Order relating to the rights of terrestrial TV broadcasters on DTT. All these have now been superseded into a new OfCom license issued last year.

All the other services have commercial contracts with SDN underpinned by individual OfCom licenses. In awarding these commercial contracts, SDN consumes the unused bits of S4C and C5's reserved capacity, presumably discounting them some of their transmission costs in compensation.

If ITV were to want to kick anyone off, it could only be by negotiation. That in itself would be a fairly major task involving all the parties who share the platform, and OfCom. But yes, you could have a form of re-alignment with C4 migrating its channels, along with C5 onto Mux2 and ITV moving completely to MuxA. Perhaps S4C would even shack up with the BBC. The issue of the FreeView muxes ("B", "C" and "D") carrying subscription channels, were it to arise, would be one of negotiation with OfCom.

Now that E4 has begun the process of going FTA, the future of TuTV seems to be with the UK channels. Presumably therefore TuTV's destiny is tied up with the impending sale of Flextech by TeleWest. According to some of the business press the buyer could even be ITV!

Are you sure Five's share isn't 50% of the mux?

The press release I've seen talks about an OFCOM ruling due on the price of the 5 Five channels, and later names them as:

Five
UK TV Gold / Boomerang
Discovery / Discovery H&L
UK TV Style / Cartoon Network
Xtraview