ITV to Ditch Free Channels

[Kev Mulrenan]

The incompetent fools! I would miss itv4 and 3, but not the bilge on 2.

ITV3 will be a reminder of what great drama they used to do; they are so broke they'll never produce period or quality drama much imo

They really must be desperate!


ITV risks viewers' fury over talks to move its Freeview channels onto subscription-only SkyBy Paul Revoir
Last updated at 2:38 PM on 02nd June 2009

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ITV has held discussions with BSkyB about moving its free-to-air digital channels such as ITV2 to subscription, making them no longer available on Freeview.
The broadcaster is understood to be considering the option in desperation as it suffers the biggest financial crisis in its history causing spiralling revenues.
Observers have branded the idea 'madness' as the free TV service has been credited with building ITV's portfolio of digital channels into massive success.
Success: ITV2's programmes include Katie And Peter: Stateside, which showed the couple's relationship unravel in grisly detail
Risky move: ITV is in talks with BSkyB over Freeview channels including ITV2

The latest Ofcom report showed 17.2million homes now have Freeview while the latest Sky results showed it has 9.3million subscribers for its service.
The free service has helped make ITV2 - which airs Britain's Got More Talent - the most watched non-sports UK digital channel.
But ITV is understood to have held talks with BSkyB bosses about taking ITV2, classic drama channel ITV3 and male-orientated ITV4 to subscription.
This would see ITV pay a 'carriage fee' to the satellite service in return for a guaranteed cut of revenues from channel packages sold to pay-TV subscribers.
The broadcaster is considering desperate options after it posted a pre-tax loss of £2.73billion last year.
Free popcorn: U.S. imports like American Idol have been a cornerstone of ITV2's strategy
It has axed 1,600 jobs since September and dramatically cut its programming budget, particularly hitting drama and daytime shows.
However, the BSkyB move would inevitably spark an angry backlash from ITV's digital viewers as they realise they face paying for something they are used to getting free.
The high-risk strategy would see the channels' ratings plummet and the fall might not be off-set by the money ITV would get for charging for them.
ITV2 has become a ratings success story with its combination of ITV1 spin-offs, for shows like Britain's Got Talent , and successful U.S. acquisitions, such as American Idol.
It has also developed its own successful programming including various programmes fronted by Katie Price and Peter Andre.
Spin-off: Stephen Mulhern, host of ITV2's show Britain's Got More Talent, with Ant and Dec from the ITV1 parent show
ITV previously moved away from pay-TV after the 2002 collapse of ITV Digital, its digital terrestrial television (DTT) business.
The broadcaster focused instead on building up its suite of digital channels via Freeview, the hugely successful DTT free-to-air service that replaced ITV Digital.
Despite the dire state of the advertising market, ITV has increased revenues from its digital channels business to an impressive £242million.
But bosses are looking at whether a move back to pay-TV will help reduce the dependence on advertising.
ITV would also have to do a separate deal with Virgin Media, which has 3.5million cable TV subscribers.

[Stephen Doran]

I still have analogue ITV1 is enough

[Deleted]

Jun 2, 2009 16:07:02 GMT Stephen Doran said:

I still have analogue ITV1 is enough

That sounds like one channel too many to me! ;D

[Oliver Roemer]

Hmm, to quote a friend of mine from Scotland: "ITV is crap!!" ,

but to be honest, I never before had much of a chance to see US and british TV Series like "Quincy", "Kojak", "CI 5", "The Prisoner" etc. in their original language on telly, so fo me this would've been a great loss. I want to keep these channels free on satellite !!

Regards,

Oliver. (A viewer from Germany)

[Eric Lawton]

Theyre intent on ripping us all off. Like Sky, we pay subscriptions and then adverts every 5 blasted minutes. Theyre having their cake AND eating it. Wish Everyone in the country would have the bottle to just cancel everything and then sit back and see what happens. But theres too many Telly Addicts around.
Ive said the same thing about Beer for years. If, tonight, they put ale up to £150 per pint, you would still get some block-heads going out and paying it !

[Oliver Roemer]

The thing is, for years and years they are trying to establish this thing in Germany too, but here we are just not willing to pay for something that has always been available for free.
In Germany, Pay-TV has missed the Bus in the early 80's, now they are trying to establish it over here with very little success but these yuppie guys didn't want to learn that their time has ran out, instead they are trying it again by selling the only serious provider of these services "Premiere" to Mr. Murdoch and SKY !!!

[Stephen Doran]

Was it in 1965 Britain had Pay TV?

[Oliver Roemer]

Did you mean "commercial TV"
Pay TV in 1965 ??
If you think about the former one (commercial TV), well that started in Germany in the early 80's and we were very late wiith our "kind of" version of ITV, I think RTL was one of the first in Germany.

But Pay-TV in Germany means a subscription tv service like SKY whether on cable or satellite, so I hope I haven't been mistaken here. Maybe it's one of these typical stupid english terms that have been created by the german industry that doesn't exist in the english language for real.

I'm sorry for that, now you'll have another reason to laugh about about our sometimes stupid people !!

[Eric Lawton]

Ha Ha, Now now Oliver.......I have as many friends in Germany as I have in England. And my German DVD / Radio Trading friends are more reliable than my English friends.
And another thing Oliver, Your "stupid" people have the good sense and decency to archive all their important music shows and make them available for us all to enjoy forever.
Not like the imbeciles ( or should that be Dumbkopfs) who are in charge of our TV Archives and use our musical history as Landfill etc.
Ive always said Oliver, that I wish the English were as forward thinking as our German friends.
I know you are only joking, but we are FAR more stupid than you !!

Mind you, we will win the World Cup again next year, beating Germany along the way.

See..............even I am stupid !!

Eric ( Erich )

[Oliver Roemer]

;D

Well, I made a few typos, so now I get the picture Eric !

Unfortunately, even in Germany some music programmes were wiped at the beginning of the 70's, but we were lucky that has stopped very shortly afterwards.

One of these programmes was a late 60's/early 70's forerunner of the popular 70's programme "Disco"
The programme was called "4-3-2-1 Beat & Sweet" and it was produced by our second television channel ZDF.
Although a lot of well known late 60's performers were guests in these shows, sadly not one of them has survived, they were all wiped.

[Deleted]

Jun 3, 2009 13:54:34 GMT Stephen Doran said:

Was it in 1965 Britain had Pay TV?

By Pay TV i'm assuming you mean the short-lived thing whereby there was a slot / meter attached to the TV set and you paid for the item you wanted to see by putting coins in. Is this what you meant? I remember this being listed along with the other channels around 1966 (particularly in the broadsheet "Sun" newspaper) and , as far as I know, was just London area and I don't know who ran it. There were only a few things on per day (mainly films, I seem to think). It would say something like "film (title): 2/6d" alongside each item! True pay TV!

I wonder if recordings of any fragments exist (I doubt it although amazingly there is a t/r of the opening speech of Sheffield's pay-tv channel)? Did anyone reading this actually witness it? Was there any continuity and what was it like? I always used to wonder about this at the time!

[Simon Winters]

Pay TV was operated in 1966 in London by British Relay & Wireless, with programmes and continuity supplied by ABC.

I assume the same service was available on other cable networks across the country.

Yes, there was a coin-operated machine attached to the set!

My family were the first to subscribe in the Westminster borough, and my uncle got into the local newspaper putting in the first coin. We still have the official opening programme magazine in mint condition, and the newspaper article.

It was short-lived and didn't carry many programmes, but it did offer live exclusive sporting events like boxing. I think the special government licence was for a restricted time.

I did see the original channel opening sequence on a website some years ago, so somebody has it as a film recording. There was an invision announcer.

Unfortunately, that website seems to have disappeared, and I can't remember what it was called. Hopefully, this opening sequence will resurface at some point.

In late 1981, Visionhire in London (successor to BR & W) operated an subscriber service called 'Showcable' on their spare fourth channel. I was a subscriber to this film channel. Continuity was supplied by the BBC.

I remember being very annoyed, though, that in order to make room for this channel they had to remove Southern Television from their fourth spare channel, where it had been carried free throughout London since the mid to late seventies.

Showcable also had a limited special govt licence, which expired in 1983/84. Visionhire closed down their entire cable service shortly afterwards.

I understand that there were several other pay tv projects, but Pay TV in 1966 was the first.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the detailed reply, Simon. Very interesting that ABC supplied the continuity too.

[Stephen Doran]

Cheers Laurence&Simon.

Jun 4, 2009 8:36:59 GMT @laurencepiper said:

Jun 3, 2009 13:54:34 GMT Stephen Doran said:

Was it in 1965 Britain had Pay TV?

By Pay TV i'm assuming you mean the short-lived thing whereby there was a slot / meter attached to the TV set and you paid for the item you wanted to see by putting coins in. Is this what you meant? I remember this being listed along with the other channels around 1966 (particularly in the broadsheet "Sun" newspaper) and , as far as I know, was just London area and I don't know who ran it. There were only a few things on per day (mainly films, I seem to think). It would say something like "film (title): 2/6d" alongside each item! True pay TV!

I wonder if recordings of any fragments exist (I doubt it although amazingly there is a t/r of the opening speech of Sheffield's pay-tv channel)? Did anyone reading this actually witness it? Was there any continuity and what was it like? I always used to wonder about this at the time!

[Andy Howells]

Jun 4, 2009 11:03:43 GMT Simon Winters said:

Pay TV was operated in 1966 in London by British Relay & Wireless, with programmes and continuity supplied by ABC.

I assume the same service was available on other cable networks across the country.

Yes, there was a coin-operated machine attached to the set!

My family were the first to subscribe in the Westminster borough, and my uncle got into the local newspaper putting in the first coin. We still have the official opening programme magazine in mint condition, and the newspaper article.

It was short-lived and didn't carry many programmes, but it did offer live exclusive sporting events like boxing. I think the special government licence was for a restricted time.

I did see the original channel opening sequence on a website some years ago, so somebody has it as a film recording. There was an invision announcer.

Unfortunately, that website seems to have disappeared, and I can't remember what it was called. Hopefully, this opening sequence will resurface at some point.

In late 1981, Visionhire in London (successor to BR & W) operated an subscriber service called 'Showcable' on their spare fourth channel. I was a subscriber to this film channel. Continuity was supplied by the BBC.

I remember being very annoyed, though, that in order to make room for this channel they had to remove Southern Television from their fourth spare channel, where it had been carried free throughout London since the mid to late seventies.

Showcable also had a limited special govt licence, which expired in 1983/84. Visionhire closed down their entire cable service shortly afterwards.

I understand that there were several other pay tv projects, but Pay TV in 1966 was the first.

Thats interesting what you say about Pay TV, my first job was working for visionhire when I left school, this was around 1984, and I remember a box full of pay boxes in the storage room that were never used, obviously they had planned this scheme on a broader scale and it never took off, we were based in North Yorkshire!


I also seem to remember seeing some Pay TV sequences from the 1960s on a TV website many moons ago, so am sure there is some footage out there...