[Digital Monkey]

Looking at the new DTT bids makes me realise just how good Itv digital was, I think in the future we will look back at the ITV digital ownership as the pinnacle of DTT.

The ITV digital set top boxes gave you access to…

BBC 1, BBC2, ITV1, CH4, CH5, ITV2, BBC Choice, BBC Four, NEWS 24, CBBC, Cbeebies, QVC, ITV sport, SKY Sports 1, SKY Sports 2, SKY Sports 3, SKY movie max, Sky Premier, SKY one, Cartoon Network, Carlton Cinema, Eurosport, Granada plus, Men&motors, UK Gold, MTV, The Discovery Channel, PLAY UK, UK Style, Nickelodeon , The Paramount Channel, Film Four, E4, UK Horizons, TV Travel Shop, BBC Parliament, ITN news channel, ITV Select 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Adults only 1, 2 , 3, The Adult Channel, Television X, ITV Sport Select, ITV sport plus.

I doubt we’ll ever see anything like this line up again

Don’t know about you but I’m not looking forward to a service of FTA news and travel channels. Oh woe :'(

[Delenn]

Yeah, I was always happy with the ITVD channel line-up. Not getting the Sports, Sky One and E4 drove me into Rupe's grasp. All 4 offerings are lacklustre at best and down-right woeful the rest of the time. Sad day indeed.........

[Proton2]

first of all BBC can go jump as far as im concerned. Sky travel my arse!

I think the SDN would be best for people like us who liked itv digital channel line up, since there will be some decent pay tv, although it appears sky sports / movies are gone for good

[robot]

Yes, there wasn't much wrong with ITVD's channel line-up. Needed a little bit of tweaking, of course, but we were generally very happy with it. The channels they provided tended to be the most-watched channels anyway - according to BARB figures. Even the now much-maligned Carlton World was good at the start of OnDigital with reruns of the original Auf Wiedersehen Pet series.

One thing I would have liked would have been "guest channels" that we could sample for a month or two.

I simply can't believe that anyone would want Sky Travel and SkySports News. Desperate waste of space! I also cannot understand BSkyB's involvement with the BBC on their "joint bid". Other than both not wanting a PayTV service - but for entirely different reasons.

I earnestly hope that the ITC can knock heads together so that we get another BBC multiplex, another ITV multiplex and a multiplex of pay channels, plus more pay channels on the existing SDN Mux A.

[chrisy]

Originally posted by robot
I earnestly hope that the ITC can knock heads together so that we get another BBC multiplex, another ITV multiplex and a multiplex of pay channels, plus more pay channels on the existing SDN Mux A.

How about duplicating the current mux line-up?

Mux 1 & B - BBC
Mux 2 & C - ITV/C4
Mux A & D - SDN (with guaranteed space for C5/S4C)

It won't happen, but it is a nice thought.

Chris

[squicky]

Originally posted by chrisy


How about duplicating the current mux line-up?

Mux 1 & B - BBC
Mux 2 & C - ITV/C4
Mux A & D - SDN (with guaranteed space for C5/S4C)

It won't happen, but it is a nice thought.

No it's not, it's awful, it would be such a waste of bandwidth.

I really hope that the BBC don't get it, if they did there would be no reason to stay a DTT viewer.

However robot's point that it would be nice if you could get more mux's is valid.

This would be needed if the changes mooted around are implemented causing less bandwidth.

[Automan]

How long will it be before they start to transmit again?

Will they be enough customers left to justify the cost of maintaining all the transmitter/equipment for so few viewers?

Automan.

[chrisy]

Originally posted by squicky

No it's not, it's awful, it would be such a waste of bandwidth.

I should point out that I didn't mean duplicating the current channels - just the operators and space allocations. All the muxes could change to QAM16, BBC could spread their services over two muxes, ITV/C4 would have half of mux 2 and half of mux C (~four channels each), C5 and S4C would have half of mux A and mux D, which probably would be leased out by SDN to other broadcasters.

Chris

[squicky]

Ah whoops, misunderstood you

I think that's roughly what's needed apart from the mux's don't need to be doubled up as it wouldn't be going to 50% of capacity.

I suspect more mux's will be needed though but that's unlikely to happen.

[Caxton]

Originally posted by Automan


Will they be enough customers left to justify the cost of maintaining all the transmitter/equipment for so few viewers?

Automan.

And that, Automan, is going to be their biggest problem. That's good thinking. It is no good counting on the subscribers they had when they ceased business as many like myself have gone to Sky, are more than happy with it, and would only use the box as a basic FTA (if we are allowed to keep them for nothing) with no subscription. If they want any silly price for the box or a subsciption then it will be on its way out of the door.

[chrisbailey]

I hope there will still be a pay-per-view service.

[sharonandjohn]

Originally posted by Digital Monkey
Looking at the new DTT bids makes me realise just how good Itv digital was, I think in the future we will look back at the ITV digital ownership as the pinnacle of DTT.

The ITV digital set top boxes gave you access to…

BBC 1, BBC2, ITV1, CH4, CH5, ITV2, BBC Choice, BBC Four, NEWS 24, CBBC, Cbeebies, QVC, ITV sport, SKY Sports 1, SKY Sports 2, SKY Sports 3, SKY movie max, Sky Premier, SKY one, Cartoon Network, Carlton Cinema, Eurosport, Granada plus, Men&motors, UK Gold, MTV, The Discovery Channel, PLAY UK, UK Style, Nickelodeon , The Paramount Channel, Film Four, E4, UK Horizons, TV Travel Shop, BBC Parliament, ITN news channel, ITV Select 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Adults only 1, 2 , 3, The Adult Channel, Television X, ITV Sport Select, ITV sport plus.

I doubt we’ll ever see anything like this line up again

Don’t know about you but I’m not looking forward to a service of FTA news and travel channels. Oh woe :'(

[sharonandjohn]

I wish someone would just take over and get a new ITV Digital on the go, the way i am reading it, this is unlikely to happen

Can someone explain in layman terms what this new stuff is all about

Originally posted by Digital Monkey
Looking at the new DTT bids makes me realise just how good Itv digital was, I think in the future we will look back at the ITV digital ownership as the pinnacle of DTT.

The ITV digital set top boxes gave you access to…

BBC 1, BBC2, ITV1, CH4, CH5, ITV2, BBC Choice, BBC Four, NEWS 24, CBBC, Cbeebies, QVC, ITV sport, SKY Sports 1, SKY Sports 2, SKY Sports 3, SKY movie max, Sky Premier, SKY one, Cartoon Network, Carlton Cinema, Eurosport, Granada plus, Men&motors, UK Gold, MTV, The Discovery Channel, PLAY UK, UK Style, Nickelodeon , The Paramount Channel, Film Four, E4, UK Horizons, TV Travel Shop, BBC Parliament, ITN news channel, ITV Select 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Adults only 1, 2 , 3, The Adult Channel, Television X, ITV Sport Select, ITV sport plus.

I doubt we’ll ever see anything like this line up again

Don’t know about you but I’m not looking forward to a service of FTA news and travel channels. Oh woe :'(

[mavreela]

Originally posted by sharonandjohn
Can someone explain in layman terms what this new stuff is all about

Okay, I'll try.

There are six frequencies available on digital terrestrial television (DTT), these are like those used by traditional analogue broadcasts, but can hold several different channels hence the need for a sepearate decoder.

Because they are digital signals holding multiple channels they are called multiplexes. Multiplex means something having multiple parts.

One of these muliplexes is given to the BBC (called multiplex one), a second is given to ITV & C4 (multiplex 2). A third (called multiplex A) is divided into two, one part for Channel 5 and S4C (the Welsh channel 4), and the other half is sold off to a bidder. This is owned by SDN, a consortium,or sell the space on it to other broadcasters, which used to include ITV Digital.

The other three multiplexes (called B, C and D) were orignally sold to BDB, who became On Digital, then ITV Digital. Since ITV Digital closed down they no longer met the requirements of owning those multiplexes (they didn't provide any channels) so they lost control of them. The ITC (who regulate commerical broadcasters) have invited companies to bid for these multiplexes and four companies have requested the right to do so.

Each multiplex can be sold individually but different bidders have all made different demands on which ones they want, some claiming if they can't have all of them they are not interested at all.

Of the four bidders two plan on only providing channels which do not require a subscription (FTA channels, as explained in the other thread), and a third will only provide a few subscription channels. The fourth bidder is SDN who want to be able to sell on the use of the multiplexes to individual channels, much like they do on multiplex A.

Also one of the problems with DTT was that the signal was not very good, and so to improve this three of the bidders want to change the way they encode the channels, this will make the signal more resiliant and less pronoe to breaking up, but it also means there will be less channels possible.

One thing which is clear from all of the bidder is that there will not be another service like ITV Digital offering a larger number of subscription channels.

[robot]

First class resumé, Mavreela!

That just about sums it up.

But, going back to the thread, if we don't get some decent channels - and that means those channels previously only on Pay TV - then I'm afraid that we'll be forced to go to cable or even, horror of horrors, to BSkyB.

Still can't make up my find as to the "entertainment channel" in the BBC bid - they could conceivably launch a new channel with a mixture of UK Gold (with much fewer showings of the Bill and Eastenders please), UK Style and UK Horizons. Or it could just be regular UK Gold - but that they're scared to mention it by name because of ITV's reaction to its earlier proposal, when they all fell out with each other.

[pcbbc]

I agree Robot. The BBC have their Entertainment channel ear-marked for UK Gold. Probably they are still in negotiations, but I think that is what the BBC would like to see there.

[djchrissy]

look how wrong u were

[media guy]

I'll just point out that at the end of last year it was pointed out my the mods by a notice at the top of the forum that people should not bring back really old posts without a strong reason and that you should refer back to it if you wanted to make a point.

It's just a little confusing especially when I didn't bother looking at the year and wondering what they were all talking about.

Graham

[amazingbazzo]

It doesn't sound like the extra (presumably) pay channelds on ITV Digital were worth the subscription. No wonder it went bust. IMO if commercial channels are any good they should be able to survive on the basis of advertising revenue and not have to fleece people by charging a subscription on top.

The fact that its only free channels on DTT should hopefully mean higher quality to attract more viewers and therefore more advertising revenue.

I hope it stays that way. Those happy top pay extortionate subscriptions for rubbish commercial TV have satellite and cable. Lets keep DTT a quality platform - and most of all FREEview!

[andyk22]

Originally posted by amazingbazzo
It doesn't sound like the extra (presumably) pay channelds on ITV Digital were worth the subscription. No wonder it went bust. IMO if commercial channels are any good they should be able to survive on the basis of advertising revenue and not have to fleece people by charging a subscription on top.

You lack the knowlege of how pay-tv works though.

You beleive that chanenls on pay-tv should be able to surive on adverts alone but in the real world niche chanenls need a mix of adverts and subscription to exsist.
Even more so for Sports and Movie chanenls where contracts run into the Billion pound regions.

[mjk79]

Originally posted by amazingbazzo
IMO if commercial channels are any good they should be able to survive on the basis of advertising revenue and not have to fleece people by charging a subscription on top.

Balderdash. There are many situations where the channel can be funded from an alternative source than just advertising.

Take the BBC for example a prime example of a pay TV service which doesn't (and many people believe shouldn't) rely on advertising. What about The Adult Channel, Filmfour or Sky Box Office - these all get their funding from a subscription - many of these channels simply couldn't ever get the funding from advertising alone to do what they do free to air.

[druid]

For the life of me I cannot understand people,getting something for nowt and all they appear to want to do is throw money away
at more channels! Druid

[Freeview_Fan]

Originally posted by Digital Monkey
Looking at the new DTT bids makes me realise just how good Itv digital was, I think in the future we will look back at the ITV digital ownership as the pinnacle of DTT.

The ITV digital set top boxes gave you access to…

BBC 1, BBC2, ITV1, CH4, CH5, ITV2, BBC Choice, BBC Four, NEWS 24, CBBC, Cbeebies, QVC, ITV sport, SKY Sports 1, SKY Sports 2, SKY Sports 3, SKY movie max, Sky Premier, SKY one, Cartoon Network, Carlton Cinema, Eurosport, Granada plus, Men&motors, UK Gold, MTV, The Discovery Channel, PLAY UK, UK Style, Nickelodeon , The Paramount Channel, Film Four, E4, UK Horizons, TV Travel Shop, BBC Parliament, ITN news channel, ITV Select 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Adults only 1, 2 , 3, The Adult Channel, Television X, ITV Sport Select, ITV sport plus.

I doubt we’ll ever see anything like this line up again

Don’t know about you but I’m not looking forward to a service of FTA news and travel channels. Oh woe :'(

Looking at that has made me realise how s**t ITV Digital was, and how great Freeview is going to be. Many of these channels were not 24 hours, the reception was awfal and it costs the same as Sky!! None of that makes sense since Sky offers a lot more. Hail Freeview, and long live Freeview, finally something original and free compared to other digital tv packages!

[a04188]

yep, if ITV Digital came back i wouldn't pay the money, specially when the picture quality was bad & anyway there's Sky & Cable where you can get all those channels
anyway i & other people like the fact that we get 30 channels FREE and their not bad either
put it this way when i'm watching TV, i'm mostly watching Digital channels because when there's nothing much on analouge, there's usually stuff on Freeview or else i just listen to The Hits or TMF

[Boinng]

Originally posted by druid
For the life of me I cannot understand people,getting something for nowt and all they appear to want to do is throw money away
at more channels! Druid

The only people who still mourn the passing of itvdigital (and the coming of freeview) are the minority of ex-itvdigital subscribers who still want pay-style premium channels, but either can't or won't get sky or cable. So they carry on watching Freeview on their ex-itvdigital boxes, in the vain hope that some will magically appear.

There's not really anything that can be done for them, sadly. Even when Freeview's channels reach the same standard (by virtue of reaching a far larger and more lucrative audience than itvdigital could have ever hoped for) they still won't feel comfortable without that direct debit going out every month. Fortunately they are, increasingly, an endangered species.