TV Home Forum

ITV3 - Granada Plus is sacrificed

(August 2004)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
WE
Westy2
nwtv2003 posted:
Here's what ITV plc have said...

Quote:
ITV golden oldies channel ITV3 is expected to launch on November 1 as a free service showcasing movies and classic dramas such as Coronation Street and Cold Feet.
The decision not to charge viewers comes after months of negotiations and ends speculation that it would be a pay-TV service along the same lines as E4.

ITV's chief executive, Charles Allen, is understood to have decided that the station - which is to target upmarket viewers over the age of 35 with repeats of drama classics such as Cold Feet, re-runs of Coronation Street and movies such as The Magnificent 7 - will be broadcast on Freeview, the new BSkyB free service Freesat, and cable.

Earlier this year Granada executives were locked in intensive talks with Sky about running the £12m-a-year station as a pay channel. The decision was a difficult choice for Mr Allen, who could have boosted ITV's coffers to the tune of £7m-10m in distribution fees from Sky if it launched as a pay service.

But as part of the deal Sky is understood to have wanted an equity stake in ITV3 - a deal Mr Allen was keen to avoid. The move will come as a blow to Sky, which would have preferred ITV3 to have helped grow its own pay-TV platform rather than free-to-air digital service Freeview.

If ITV makes the channel free it could make it less likely that the network will re-sign its £17m-a-year conditional access agreement with BSkyB. Currently ITV is the only commercial public service broadcaster not to have renewed the agreement, under which it pays Sky to encrypt a regionalised service

When the channel launches it will act as a complementary service to digital station ITV2, which focuses on 16 to 34-year-olds with a diet of soap storyline extensions from Emmerdale and Coronation Street, Champions League football and extra helpings of reality TV hits such as I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.

ITV3 will focus on soap and entertainment repeats in daytime and high quality classics from the Carlton and Granada programme libraries such as Prime Suspect, Inspector Morse and Soldier, Soldier during peak hours.


Soucre Media Guardian


I'm confused.

Will it be on 'normal' Sky, or not ?
JE
Jez Founding member
Quote:
Also if ITV3 is going to show repeats of stuff during the day (Like Corrie it mentions somewhere I think), What about ITV2?? If that shows Corrie repeats its pointless for ITV3. It will only be good if they show Classic Corrie repeats, but PLUS do that so ITV3 wont be then??? So what Corrie will ITV3 be showing then???


Good question - I read on teletext that ITV3 will be showing classic episodes of Corrie, but will Plus carry on with their run of Corrie when ITV3 launches? I wonder what other soaps ITV3 will show.
SP
Spencer
Maybe ITV3 will just show older episodes of Corrie than those shown on Plus. Personally, I'd love to see more from the days of Hilda Ogden and Eddie Yates.
JE
Jez Founding member
Spencer For Hire posted:
Maybe ITV3 will just show older episodes of Corrie than those shown on Plus. Personally, I'd love to see more from the days of Hilda Ogden and Eddie Yates.


me too - ive seen almost all of what Corrie Plus have shown (they started with 1976) and they were much better quality episodes than what we get these days, it would be great to see them again.

It would be nice if ITV3 went back further than Plus did, maybe the start of the 1970s when Corrie went to colour, or even some b/w episodes. I wonder if ITV3 would be interested in screening some Crossroads from the original series.
:-(
A former member
Brekkie Boy posted:

It certainly won't time share with More4 - it will be it's biggest competitor.
.


Er.. on what do you base that? Are you saying therefore that UKTV Bright Ideas is FTN's biggest competitor? Or CBeebies is BBC4's biggest competitor?

IIRC More4's output will be mostly factual programmes and documentaries from the past. If E4 was coming to freeview I'd understand a non-timeshare. ITV3 and More4 would actually complement each other I believe.
BR
Brekkie
Meic Young posted:
Brekkie Boy posted:

It certainly won't time share with More4 - it will be it's biggest competitor.
.


Er.. on what do you base that? Are you saying therefore that UKTV Bright Ideas is FTN's biggest competitor? Or CBeebies is BBC4's biggest competitor?

IIRC More4's output will be mostly factual programmes and documentaries from the past. If E4 was coming to freeview I'd understand a non-timeshare. ITV3 and More4 would actually complement each other I believe.


What are you waffling on about?

UK Bright Ideas/FTN and CBeebies/BBC4 are from the same companies - ITV and C4 are commercial rivals and ITV3 and More4 are both channels aimed at the over 35 audience to complement ITV2/E4. More4 is certainly running in primetime (4pm-4am I think) while ITV3 is a 24hr station - also with primetime highlights such as old drama like Soldier Soldier - so timesharing is out of the question. Also, it's C4 space - not ITV's.

Looking at the line up on Mux2: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/terrestrial/mux/ space for More4 can easily be made by axing Price-drop TV.

With ABC1, ITV3 and More4 coming soon to Freeview - it's looking very promising for the future.
:-(
A former member
Brekkie Boy posted:

What are you waffling on about?


I do not waffle. Confused I eat toast for my brekkie, boy.

Brekkie Boy posted:
ITV and C4 are commercial rivals and ITV3 and More4 are both channels aimed at the over 35 audience to complement ITV2/E4....timesharing is out of the question.


Ok, but there is a precedent here. TopUpTV rival channels who are rivals timeshare. I doubt Discovery is happy to be shacked up with TVX.

Brekkie Boy posted:
Looking at the line up on Mux2: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/terrestrial/mux/ space for More4 can easily be made by axing Price-drop TV.


So...where's the space for ITV3 then? We've known for yonks that More4 will be replacing Price-Drop.

Brekkie Boy posted:
With ABC1, ITV3 and More4 coming soon to Freeview - it's looking very promising for the future.


Who are you - a Freeview PR person?
BR
Brekkie
Meic Young posted:
Brekkie Boy posted:

What are you waffling on about?


I do not waffle. Confused I eat toast for my brekkie, boy.


Laughing

Meic Young posted:
Brekkie Boy posted:
With ABC1, ITV3 and More4 coming soon to Freeview - it's looking very promising for the future.


Who are you - a Freeview PR person?


No - but these channels are much needed on Freeview - especially during the day when there is very little choice outside the main 5 channels.
:-(
A former member
no-one's disputing that - all freeviewers (hey - coined a phrase) think that. it seems a bit pointless saying it therefore.
BR
Brekkie
Anyone know what happens to plans for a free sports channel - FreeSport? - on Freeview?
:-(
A former member
AFAIK based on chatter at DS there will be some sort of announcement in the next two weeks.
:-(
A former member
I'm a bit confused about the plans for ITV 3. I'm an ex-pat in Germany and currently receive BBC FTA . Is ITV 3 going to go Free-to-Air on Digital satellite (i.e. like the BBC, in which case anyone with a bog-standard Digital satellite Receiver within the astra 2D footprint will receive it - without a viewing card) or will it be FTV (i.e a Sky box and viewing card will be required - the new Freesat deal) ?
Does anyone on this Forum know the answer ?

Newer posts