ITV plans "family of digital channels"

Well we all knew they were coming.....and acording to digital spy:


and also this in the Independent:
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=467615

ITV3???? I hope its not like BBC THREE!

Also Timeshift channels??? What ITV NEWS +1?? We get repeats of stuff at night on the news channel.
ITV1+1?? If they had ITV1+1, what regional Shows/News would it show?? London??
It would look strange in STV/Grampian/UTV land too. Having 103 on Sky Scottish and having 2?? or 1?? as ITV1+1, using ITV branding.

As for ITV Kids, where does it leave CiTV?? Will ITV1 in the afternoon be known as ITV Kids?

Ummm.....but didn't the news item say "ITV3 would target a more upmarket audience", therefore more like BBC Four???

I'd image ITV1+1 would only carry London on Dsat (maybe regions would be possible on DTT - noggin or someone?). They surely don't intend to purchase sufficient transponder space to carry every region twice do they (especially since they are planning to add some of the subregions next year)?


I think CITV Channel would be a better name. They were actually going to do this a few years ago, but plumped for the ITV Sport Channel instead.

ITV3 sounds interesting, but the concept of ITV making highbrow arts and drama (especially on a poorly funded digital channel) these days is something I can't quite imagine. If they make a good go of it however, then good luck to them.

Where they would put them to on DTT I do not know. I think it's a fairly safe bet that no +1'd channels will be appearing. But ITV3 and ITV Kids they'd probably want on there. They've used up all of their own space, so they'd have to lease it from someone else. Channel 4 of course presently only have the 1 channel, but they've got another one coming next year, which would leave 1 gap. Maybe they are hoping to do a deal with C4? But even if that happened, that would only be one channel, and they couldn't guantee that it would be able to stay there forever.
Other remaining spaces have been earmarked by the disney and setanta services. Quite where all these channels are going to go I do not know.

I suspect Carlton and Granada want an ITV1+1 so that they can get ITV1 Branding into Scotland and N Ireland. Even if shows are an hour later than STV/UTV etc, its better than nothing.

Also in Wales?? EPG: 103 ITV1 Wales (Wales branding)
EPG: 2?? ITV1 (Network Branding....and a nice huge dog too!)

Does ITV1 have enough highbrow shows to fill a whole channel?

Unless ITV buy some of Channel Four's space on DTT / Freeview they don' t have much more room left on the DTT / Freeview platform... They have almost half of Mux 2 (which is currently running at 24 Mbs) - so they have about 11-12Mbs for their TV services. This is currently split between ITV1, ITV2 and ITV News Channel - which gives them a max of 4Mbs per video channel. (Not a massive amount...)

If they were to launch another one or two channels this would drop the data rata to a max 2-3Mbs - which would drop the picture quality massively.

Suspect any new services would need more space on Freeview - but could be easily housed on DSat.

It does sound like a rather good idea as they probably will be free and hopefully offer more choice from ITV. I would assume that ITV3 will be back to back drama's such as Morse and Frost and other programmes like The South Bank Show. Really what would be a good filler on ITV3 would be programmes from ITV1 regions, as Granada has had a history programme on lately (The one about the Industrial Revoultion) and I have to say that these have been impressive and really should get a network showing, say on ITV3, plus it would offer a good choice to those who watch BBC Four and Artsworld. ITV Kids, is a good idea as it would back up CiTV at the moment which is slightly improving and could get better, though it could shut down as no-one may watch if it's back to back My Parent's Are Aliens, they should take the oppourtunity to repeat programmes like Knightmare and Spatz. Plus some of the shows they get are from Nickelodeon so they wouldn't be allowed to show those. Maybe they should stick with putting more CiTV on ITV2 in the day, or when available ITV3 in the day. ITV1 +1 would be great, it would be cool if ITV were the first terrestrial channel to do this, as I do seem to miss decent programmes, so that would be good.

Though we don't seem to have any news on ITV Gold yet? As that is something I would like to look foward to.

It sounds more and more like it'll just be a rebrand of Granada Plus. Apart from the change of name and cross promotion on other ITV branded services, I doubt it will change much (if at all).

It says in the article posted that the ITV kids channel would be a 'joint operation' so this could be what Steven Andrew was talking about when he said he needed a commercial partner for CiTV. Disney would perhaps be the best option for this - perhaps the two channels (Disney /CiTV) could merge...

I don't see the point of an ITV3 - they should spend more money on improving ITV2. I know it's one of the most popular channels after the 5 terrestrials but doesn't it have repeats of Morse/Frost already?

I do wonder exactly what they're going to fill the ITV Kids schedule up with, won't most of the target stuff already be on the Disney Channels? If the commercial partnership falls through then they'll be well and truely stuffed. Bit of a clumsy name, ITV Kids. Although by rights it's due to change now anyway, having had "Children's ITV" 1983-1993 and CITV 1993-now (changing to small letter i from 1998) so I suppose it was to be expected.

Re: Timeshifted ITV1 - It'll have to be the network feed wouldn't it, shove a filler proggie in or something where the regional news/proggies would have gone.

ITV3 - I can't see it myself. Probably fill that up with "another chance to see this week's episodes of Corrie and Emmerdale". Technically drama. Although where these arts programmes and other material will come from, unless its specially commissioned, I do not know. But if its means getting more archive programming out under the ITV plc company then good luck to them.

I do believe the proposed ITV Gold will be a rebrand of Granada Plus. Its just waiting to happen, isn't it?

"ITV3" eh?

That'll confuse older people who think of ITV1 as "channel 3"!!!!

And "ITV Kids" - if that's what their children's channel gets named, then can we presume that the CiTV strand on ITV1 will be renamed to match?

It will be a shame if they get rid of the 'CiTV' brand name, its a stupid idea, especially for something like 'itv kids'? That's patronising for children, and is totally american! And if a channel is launched (which it isn't ready to, unless it's filled with another channel's shows and old CiTV shows, which could be shooting themselves in the foot), then the itv1 strand will also be rebranded.