Sky & Itv Discuss Itv Gold

ntl have developed new technologies which are currently used on SDN which allows 7 channels on the SDN mulitplex with no noticable loss in quality. (This is not the same system used by ITV Digital, who simply crammed the channels in).

I hope not, as it is quite possibly the worst TV programme ever.

However The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan, is true ITV Gold and quite rightly deserves a slot.

You forget ITVNewschannel Gold, showing repeats of ITN Bulletins since day 1.

I hope that replacing "Plus" with an "ITV..." branded channel means that It'll be available on Freeview. I wish UK Gold was. I'm not gonna get to see UK Gold's 40th Anniversary of Doctor Who celebrations. Grr.

I suspect the Dr Who anniversary will be given little, if any, coverage on BBC channels. If they were to repeat one story per each incarnation of The Doctor (possibly as omnibuses) on, say, consecutive Sundays - which is what they did for the 30th anniversary in 1993 - that does not count as a proper celebration.

I'd hope that the beeb would do something to celebrate it, although they don't appear to be. Very sad that they can't be bothered to do anything, especially since they're about to bring it back.

Hell! People wont pay for nothing now a day’s! I'm sorry, but I like Plus the way it is, and as I pay a subscription for it, I would much prefer it stayed that way.

I'm sure some people don’t think about how much room Freeview has. Every time a new channel starts folk want it on Freeview. When there was Talk about UKG2 starting, next thing, people going on 'Oh I hope its on Freeview'. Then, the number of times people have been going on & on that they want E4!!! Now that ITV are likely to have more channels, it’s the same old rigmarole again, 'I hope its on Freeview'. I'm sorry, but in the days when Digital Channels were only available through the 3 pay-tv options ( DTT, DSAT, Cable) I have to say, things like ITV2 were slightly better, and at least were showing their own programs or old ITV programs that you have not seen in ages. Now, that Digital is available to folk from as low as £39.99, the channels are in my view, not as good, and what gets me going is that as soon as folk get Digital TV, they all of a sudden expect endless amounts of pay channels to become free on Freeview!
Freeview is Free, Basic and a taster of what digital channels are on offer in this day and age. At the end of the day, Freeview is for folk to have more than just a choice of 1-5 every night, not about having endless amounts of pay channels for free. If you don’t like Freeview, than either save up for DSAT/Cable and get all those channels you’ve always wanted, or just go back to having 1-5, and its tough if you’re bored!!

Alright, calm down!

I did used to have Sky Digital, but have downgraded to Freeview (I have my reasons - which I won't go into here, not least of all because they're nobody's business). By this time next year, I hope to be back with Sky.

In the meantime, I'm really missing the variety I'd got used to. Freeview's tag-line of "around 30 channels" makes it sound not-too-bad, but it's a bit of a con, because when you allow for all the radio stations and interactives (such as the BBCi channel, and the Teletext channel), there's significantly less than 30 actual television stations on it!

Yes, I understand you miss the millions of choice you had with Sky, and if someone took it away from me, I would miss the choice so much too, but now that you don’t have the choice, why is there a need to want pay channels all of a sudden becoming free?? ATM, you have a tiny choice, which is not as good as before but like you say, you'll have your million and 1 channel’s back soon anyway.
I’m not being nasty to you personally, but at the end of the day, Freeview homes get what they are given with the current line up, so should not moan, I want this, I want that. If you want all of that, then you know what you have to do.

And BTW, I am Calm. Very.

Indeed, what people may not realise is that the existing 1-5 are INCLUDED in that 'around 30 channels'.

That actual number of additional television channels available with DTT/Freeview is in fact 20. And of those 20, 1 of those channels only broadcasts for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, 1 of them broadcasts only in a quarter screen and 6 more are timeshare channels; only 3 of them will actually be running at any given time. Saying that Freeview gives you 'about 30 channels' is almost doubled the actual number of extra channels it gives you.


Tell me about it. I'd had Sky at home ever since 1990, when I first went to uni I had ITV Digital and so still had a reasonable channel choice, last year I had Sky and once again had decent multichannel television, this year I'm living in a building without cable and without the option of installing a dish, so I'm stuck on Freeview. It's a big shock when you've been used to so much more.

Why cant you erect a dish on the building?

I can sort of see why people may get a little bored of Freeview cos for instence at primetime you sit down to relax and watch the TV. With Freeview you really only have the choice of BBC 1/2 ITV1/ Four, Five, ITV2, BBC3 & 4(well sort of Four, not really that entertaining), Ftn, UK History and sky travel. Cos lets face it, your not going to spend 3 or 4 hours a night on BBC N24, ITV News, Sky news, SSN or even QVC/BID-up, Price-Drop, as these channels you just pop to see any nice products, and quick news etc or the 2 music channels you just pop to see if any good vids are on. So as for channels you can stick to for a few hours there is not that much choice.
What’s disappointing a little about Freeview, is when you flick through the 3 pages a day of multi-channel TV in the listings guides, and you see that you only have about 5 channels in the multi-channel TV pages as most of the channels on freeview are filled up with channels with no listings like shopping, news and music. That’s when it hits home that you don’t have much choice.

Not allowed to under the contract. If the landlord thought ahead they would have run cable into the rooms, since it is (annoyingly) in the street but it can't be done now.