ITV1+1

Unless a +1 encourages viewers to become complacent with their viewing habits, and instead of 10% more viewers you merely end up with 10% of ITV1 viewers delaying their viewing while they do something else, because they can.

Is it pointless wanting ITV 1 +1 because it mucks up your special coding system?

Your comment only emphasises my point, delayed viewing to +1 channels makes the value of the service even more effective.

Yes Chie I'm not quite sure I grasp your point there... twice the showings means effectively, twice the possible audience, and twice the possible ad revenue.

It's no different to Dave, BBC3 et al showing four programmes from 9:00pm to 11:20pm, then repeating them. People who were out / in the pub / watching something else, can happily miss the first showing, knowing they can catch up on the second showing. Choice may be the loser here, but when you're showing repeats ad nauseum, it makes very little difference.

It was announced in August that ITV1+1 will launch at some point in the first quarter of 2011. The exact date isn't known yet.

The placeholder is on Freeview here in Scotland but, presumably, that is an accident as I don't see how ITV1+1 could legally be broadcast outside the ITVplc franchise regions. Obviously Sky viewers in the STV region could "get it by the back door" but it may not have an EPG slot here.

It's also unclear if ITV1+1 will be a "national" service where it is available or if, as was proposed last year, it will follow the macro-regional structure like ITV1 HD - though that would seem a fair bet.

Presumably STV would want to launch STV+1

I'm lead to believe that it will launch in January. ( No official source, just heard a whisper or two)

It's because the programmes are on an hour later

When you were a kid you didn't have the internet either, so why don't you give that up!



And advertisers would much rather viewers watch a show on a +1 channel than on a PVR or the ITV Player.

As a rule of thumb, a +1 channel tends to add 5% to a channel's share - say going from 1% to 1.05%.

So in that sense ITV would be gambling on ITV1 going from, say, a 16% share to a combined ITV1 and ITV1+1 share of 16.8%. All good for their share of commercial impacts.

However it's likely that the main ITV1 channel would lose share too even if things went the right way on balance so the symbolic gap with BBC1 would widen - though that's not a commercial concern.

I believe STV is looking at running STV+1 but no decision has been taken yet. Presumably they could reclaim a slot on the PSB multiplex from ITVplc on Freeview but would they get the satellite space and the EPG slot on Sky given the fun and games with STV HD?

I've always thought Dave was a channel people turned to when there was nothing else on. ITV1 is full of appointment-to-view programmes, it's not comparable to Dave or even BBC Three.

Anyway you're right, it doesn't make any difference on a channel like Dave because they've got to show something and they may as well pay to repeat the last three hours of programming, but creating a whole new channel to repeat things on is an additional expense.

Regardless of the economics, I personally think +1 channels are indicative of cheapness and devalue the brand image.

Oh I quite agree about the difference between appointment-to-view TV and Dave etc... but then daily favourites like Corrie, Eastenders, Emmerdale and Neighbours all have repeats on sister channels which means it has not been strictly necessary to be plonked in front of your TV at 7:30pm on a Monday etc...; is day-later repeating really any different to the concept of +1 channels?



(Devil's advocate) -- So well known marquee brands like Discovery, National Geographic, Disney, Channel 4, Hallmark/Universal etc. are devalued by a timeshift?