Sky & Itv Discuss Itv Gold

I shouldn't think as that only applies to ITV1. ITV2 still show programmes with the hearts credits, so they can be relived as the bad idea they were over and over again.

I would like to know what is going to happen with M&M, as from what I have the seen the channel is quite popular, according to BARB they've been getting ratings of 100,000 for programmes after 12am, for a digital channel at that time of the day is good and I would be certain that they wouldn't want to close it down either, for the best option they're better off selling the channel to another company, but I guess this wouldn't be this easy as half the programmes they make come from Manchester. But if it becomes part of 'ITV' I don't believe there would be any change as it isn't Granada branded anymore.

Well at least they're going back to how they are, as I remember when they launched GSkyB in 1996, they were proud of the name and the brand and they kept promoting the fact that Granada Plus would be the best of Granada and LWT, nowadays it's just all Murder She Wrote and awful dramas such as Perry Mason. But when they launched all 4 channels in 1996 (Plus, Men and Motors, Good Life and Talk TV) all the channels were preceeded with a Granada Sky Broadcasting ident, which had cool music, but they're still glad they don't have all four channels as branding them would be a b*stard to do, ITV Gold, ITV Men and Motors, ITV Breeze and ITV Talk TV. Though I wonder what would have happened if Carlton's channels were still on? Would we have ITV Select, ITV Food Network, ITV Cinema, ITV Kids and ITV World?

Though I welcome the move of ITV Gold, only if they stay at 1992 for Corrie, as it would be a shame to stop it and go back when it is getting good. But what would happen to all the other programmes on there? As I seem to watch alot of the Jasper Carrott specials on there and UK Gold don't want them, so we would probably see the end of them .

I think that the Carlton channels would have been good as itv channels. itv kids (they are planning it supposedly), itv cinema could have worked, itv food (well itv don't have many food programmes, but if it was all new productions, more people may watch), and itv world may have worked good for spreading itv around the world. Ive wondered why the american carlton and granada services and going to be known collectively as granada america, rather than itv america.

I think as they have itv2, they should number more channels. So they know have itv2, which is known as the 'flipside'. SO why can't they have itv3, 'it's GOLD', instead of building a base of named channels and having 1 & 2, just there. Then if they decided to build on more channels such as a documentary/drama/arts channel, they could label itv4. And the only channels they would name woud be like news, sport, movies, and Childrens (CiTV).

Some interesting points... I wonder what will happen if we get ITV Gold and possibly ITV Kids - ITV2 won't really fit in, so it could become ITV Extra... and then there'd be no need for 'ITV1', just 'ITV'. I doubt they'll revert though.

ITV1
ITV2
ITV News
CiTV
ITV Gold

Could be an impressive channel lineup, although I doubt Gold and Kids will be free.

I dont watch Emmerdale on Granada Plus (just Coro St) as the episodes are just far too *new* - they are only 4 years old which seems ridiculas when there is over 30 years worth of episodes to choose from - they should go back to 1972 and show those episodes.

I would also like them to show some 1970s Coro St as well as carry on with the 1992 episodes and yes I agree about the credits, there would be no need for generic credits on old episodes of programs.

Also, if anyone watched The Bill on UK Gold, they are now using the swirly hearts credits. IMO they look stupid on UK Gold as they don't fit in with the pres of either the channel or programme- they look out of place.

ITV1 (everyones mix)
ITV2 (the flipside)
ITV3 (it's Gold)
ITV NEWS (Breaking News for Britain)
CiTV (I'll think of one later)

If CiTV/ITV want to go against CBBC, then I think they should really try to get a place on freeview for that. CBBC are the only Childrens channel on freeview at the moment, it would be good for them to have competition. They could do an itv2, where its free on freeview and paid on sky and cable. If itv gold is just a renamed and regigged plus tv, then it will most probably stay sky & cable only, as therew isn't that much room on freeview.

Could freeview have more channels added or is 30 the max?

At present, the BBC/CC multiplexes can hold 4 full screen channels. That is a policy decision made to keep the quality up on the lower bitrate 16QAM multiplexes. The D3&4 multiplex has stayed with 64QAM, and ITV and C4 are autmatically allocated half of the multiplex each to do what they will with. It can hold 6 fullscreen channels. SDN is also on 64QAM and can also hold 6 channels. Half of it belongs to C5 and the other half to S4C. However since neither broadcaster is going to utilise all their space for the forseeable future (particularly since S4C have no intention at all of broadcasting their service outside of Wales - giving them the chance to permanently take the income from 3 more channels in the rest of the UK) they lease out their spare capacity to enable non C5/S4C services to be transmitted in the space - if they didn't do this there would be even less space available.

That makes for a total of 28 full screen channels (not allowing for timeshare channels of course). The only direct way of increasing this capacity without the government providing more space would be if a policy decision saw the 4 16QAM multiplexes change back to 64QAM which would allow (in prinicipal) for another 8 channels without a drop in quality (albeit the signal would be less robust which would translate into a drop in quality in low signal areas). ITV Digital did compress all of their multiplexes more than they should have done to enable them to squeeze 7 channels onto 1 multiplex, but that tactic came at a very real drop in picture quality, and I think the industry has learned never to do that again.

Hopefully in time when the Analogue Terrestrial transmitters are switched off, more multiplexes will be licenced to provide more space for more channels, but that's uncertain, and it's also a long way a way, with analogue terrestrial being good for the next 10-15 years (whatever the government may try to tell you).

Do you think Prisoner Cell Block H Will make the ITV Gold Slot.

Stop going on about this Prisiner programme or something. What is it?

prisoner is a 1979 - 1986 prison drama. itv have shown it about 3 - 4 times it might be more. channel 5 shown episodes 1 - 692 from 1997 - 2001. itv gold is a channel for itv shows of whats been on through the years. like prisoner cell block h. so i asked if itv gold will show prisoner.

Most ITV stations have only shown it once. The only stations to rerun it were Central and Tyne Tees. Central gave up on their rerun at the end of 1995 (despite saying that Prisoner would be back in 1996). Tyne Tees reran it to the end but missed out a lot of episodes in the early 90's when their schedule was forcibly changed to match the Yorkshire airings. All the other stations have only shown it once, and Carlton London, Meridian (and therefore Channel), and UTV cancelled it before they got to the end. Westcountry was the last station to finish it, doing so in late 1997. Meridian were the last station to air it, finally pulling it in the summer of 1999.

Tyne Tees were the first to show it, starting in 1984, it was subsequently purchased for the whole ITV network to air when they chose.