ITV1 on Satellite

Well - after ploughing through all the posts on various ngs, as well as newspaper articles - it is still not clear exactly what will happen.

What we know :

ITV have leased three transponders from SES (the company which operates Astra). NTL have been awarded the uplink contract. The launch is likely around 24th November, IF AND ONLY IF, the uplinks are working successfully.

ITV will broadcast 16 franchise variants, 1 of each of the single nation franchises, and both versions of the dual nations (HTV and Border) There is also a strong likelihood that ITV2 will appear.

The ITV sport channels are being treated separately and may not appear at the same time.

Access to the sky EPG (BUT NOT their encryption system) is guaranteed/regulated by the ITC (I think - though it may be OFTEL for some strange reason) at a reasonably low rate.

Access to the Encryption system is NOT covered by this agreement, and Sky are likely to charge a lot of money for it. They are a commercial operation, and free to charge what they like for this aspect of their custom technology. (NDS which developed the encryption system used by Sky are owned by one of Rupert Murdoch's companies)

What is rumoured :

It is unclear whether channels can be postcode specific (as would be required to map your local ITV to EPG channel 103 AUTOMATICALLY) by just using the EPG and not using Encryption.

There is a strong argument that for postcode specific broadcasting a viewing card has to be present, and possibly the allied encryption used. All current examples of this, like National BBC One/Twos, S4C/C4 swapping position, BBC One/Two NI appearing on yet further different EPG no.s in Republic of Ireland, etc. all require a card for viewing. (The EPG also uses the card for some things it seems.)

There is a suggestion that to get round this, ITV may launch a TEXT/Interactive service on EPG 103 (like Music Choice offer on 480/1), which will provide a digital text like menu to select your ITV region (which you would select, and your favourite possibly would be stored somewhere in the Digibox - there must be storage available for this to happen - I believe there is) and also allow viewing of other regions. Still not perfect - and Sky also charge quite a lot of money for access to their Interactive software in receivers....

The other option is that Sky could be forced by ITC/Oftel to offer an ITV sub-menu somewhere in the SETUP options of the receiver to allow you to manually set the EPG correctly to your local ITV region. This would be quite a major shift in the way the digibox works! (But might also have benefits in the long run if the BBC decide to launch English BBC One regions on DSat)

Yep, where does all this leave the BBC?

Presumably they would insist on a postcode system for the BBC One regions, given that the BBC nations are not available across the UK due to copyright restrictions.

And wouldn't ITV be affected by similar copyright problems for their output, which would force them to use postcode-validation?

Sky already have a full regional postcode system ready for this eventuality

Glad to hear it! One less excuse for my mum not going digital then!

The DigitalSpy extract at the start of this thread makes reference to SIXTEEN itv1 regions.

How will the issue of itv1's NEWS SUB-REGIONS be handled on digital satellite?

Isn't there a thread in the Archives about what subregion people on DSat will get? I'll see if I can find it. Basic guess though - the ones with the largest population coverage. Best to please the majority.

Cheers, Asa

Yes, I'm pretty sure that for Carlton Central, the news programme on DSat will be Central News West.

Right... I think I understand now. But just because the FT are saying it does not mean it's true, so don't be shocked if you don't get to see all regions after all.

It will be great if all regions are available on Sky, certainly from a news perspective, which appears to be the only regional thing on ITV at present. It'll mean that should you want to find out what's happening in Yorkshire you'll be able to watch Calendar - although I can't fully understand why anyone would want to do that.

I'd would make a great deal of sense - and I think I suggested in a few months ago - if ITV decided to begin an interactive service, allowing users to choose which region they're in.

It will also mean Teletext Digital will be available on DSAT.

Agreed. Another source claims ITV will be using the old U>Direct EPG numbers, for the different regions, with 103 giving a table of different EPG numbers for different regions.

i loved the carlton ident used last week following the us terror attacks. if you didnt see it, it was a very sombre carlton ident.

Don't think so. Teletext are separate from ITV, therefore they would (if they want to) have to negotiate their own deal (and they have done already... [Interactive] [5])

This is great! So now, folks, we can watch everyone else's regional programmes and stuff! Wicked! (I believe that means afternoon soaps all the way on the Granada channels. Crossroads, then Emmers then Corrie. Cool!)