ARGH many points here so bear with me.
From that article when they were naming what there was on Digital Terrestrial was the government source quoted on BBC 3 and 4?!?
I hope/think ITV Digital will collapse, either way you look at it, it are be doomed, they need to give the Sport Channel and ITV to sky but they are the services draws.
The only problem with Digital at the moment is that people are not choosing between Digital or Analogue, there are choosing between Analogue and Pay TV. That is why digital take up is low, if you want to get the nation Digital, let them with FTA boxes, and stop forcing them to pay a monthly charge. Give out free/cheap boxes and you'll easily get the nation digital, if we carry on like this and they reach their targets we'll kill FTA Digital and be the only nation that forces people to pay a monthly charge for TV.
If ITV Digital collapses it will be great for Digital TV, it will free up some multiplexes(would we be able to swith to the french? system I read somewhere is better), some channels such as the UKTV channels and things like E4 may become FTA in order to reach larger audiences, this would be in general good for the viewing public but also it would also cut sky back a bit because they are big draws for sky, where is the harm in this? square eyes I know you're a huge fan of ITV Digital, what do you think?
AE
Ashley Elford
Mich posted:
some channels such as the UKTV channels and things like E4 may become FTA in order to reach larger audiences
That simply can't happen because subscription television channels generally purchase subscription-only television rights. It is absolute rubbish to think Sky would want to save ITV Digital. Look at 1990, when Sky practically asset-stripped BSB. Its a shame in the UK there is the 'only one winner' thinking, whereas on the continent, many countries have two/three equally large television broadcasters, where you see premium channels advert-free etc...
There is nothing flawed about MHEG5 as you might think Martin, look at Canal Digital and see how they can make fantastic interactive services with it. Of course, as with anything interactive its the bandwidth causing the problem. Using OpenTV for DTT instead of MHEG5+MediaHighway would probably just give the same results, only it would be a greater cost to the broadcasters (you have to pay royalties to use OpenTV and MediaHighway, but MHEG5 can be used FOC by anyone).
AN
andyeighteen
BringBackThames posted:
...the government should have produced an integrated digital box with the cable companies providing the interactive service through broadband, ITV Digital providing a regional channels and the FTA channels and Sky providing the pay per view channels.
i was thinking along the same lines - though not in as much detail as you. i think the only way for digital tv to take off is to provide a uniform, and cost effective product.
i would merge all the delivery systems into 1 - giving shares to Sky, NTL, Telewest, ITV Digital etc ... call it 'digiTV' - and i would make it so there would be a standard box (no subscription) using DTT frequencies, and then into that box you just plug in a dish for pay Movies, Sport etc. and just plug a cable into it for interactive services.
oh and the government should subsidies the cost of these boxes so that every house in the country has one. but the important thing is the basic box should be able to plug in and watch free to air channels without any subscription.