Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
ITV Digital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners of multiple licences of the ITV network. Starting as ONdigital in 1998, the service was rebranded as ITV Digital in July 2001.
Low audience figures, piracy issues and an ultimately unaffordable multi-million pound deal with the Football League led to the broadcaster suffering large losses, and it entered administration in March 2002. Pay television services ceased permanently on 1 May of that year, but carriage of the remaining free-to-air channels such as BBC One and Channel 4 continued. In October, ITV Digital’s former terrestrial multiplexes were taken over by Crown Castle and the BBC to create the Freeview free-to-air service.
On 31 January 1997, Carlton Television, Granada Television and satellite company British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) together created British Digital Broadcasting (BDB) as a joint venture, and applied to operate three digital terrestrial television (DTT) licences. They faced competition from a rival, Digital Television Network (DTN), a company created by cable operator CableTel (later known as NTL). On 25 June 1997, BDB won the auction and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) awarded the sole broadcast licence for DTT to the consortium. Then on 20 December 1997, the ITC awarded three pay-TV digital multiplex licences to BDB.
That same year, however, the ITC forced BSkyB out of the consortium on competition grounds; this effectively placed Sky in direct competition with the new service as Sky would also launch its digital satellite service in 1998, although Sky was still required to provide key channels such as Sky Movies and Sky Sports to BDB. With Sky as part of the consortium, British Digital Broadcasting would have paid discounted rates to carry Sky's television channels. Instead, with its positioning as a competitor, Sky charged the full market rates for the channels, at an extra cost of around £60million a year to BDB. On 28 July 1998, BDB announced the service would be called ONdigital, and claimed it would be the biggest television brand launch in history. The company would be based in Marco Polo House (since demolished) in Battersea, south London, which was previously the home of BSkyB's earlier rival, British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB).
Six multiplexes were set up, with three of them allocated to the existing analogue broadcasters. The other three multiplexes were auctioned off. ONdigital was given one year from the award of the licence to launch the first DTT service. In addition to launching audio and video services, it also led the specification of an industry-wide advanced interactive engine, based on MHEG-5. This was an open standard that was used by all broadcasters on DTT.
ONdigital was officially launched on 15 November 1998 amid a large public ceremony featuring celebrity Ulrika Jonsson and fireworks around the Crystal Palace transmitting station. Its competitor Sky Digital had already debuted on 1 October. The service launched with 12 primary channels, which included the new BBC Choice and ITV2 channels; a subscription package featuring channels such as Sky One, Cartoon Network, E4, UKTV channels and many developed in-house by Carlton and Granada such as Carlton World; premium channels including Sky Sports 1 and 3 (later including 2), Sky Premier and Sky MovieMax; and the newly launched FilmFour.
From the beginning, however, the company was quickly losing money. Supply problems with set-top boxes meant that the company missed Christmas sales and retailers had to wait several months for the customers to receive their boxes. Meanwhile, aggressive marketing by BSkyB for Sky Digital made the ONdigital offer look unattractive. The new digital satellite service provided a dish, digibox, installation and around 200 channels for £159, a lower price than ONdigital at £199. Sky had also launched earlier, meaning they had a head start over the ONdigital service. ONdigital's subscription pricing had been set to compare with the older Sky analogue service of 20 channels. In 1999, digital cable services were launched by NTL, Telewest and Cable & Wireless.
In February 1999, ITV secured the rights for UEFA Champions League football matches for four years, which would partly be broadcast through ONdigital. Two sports channels were added to the platform, Champions ON 28 and Champions ON 99 (later renamed ONsport 1 and ONsport 2 when it secured the rights to ATP tennis games), the latter of which timeshared with Carlton Cinema. Throughout 1999, channels including MTV and British Eurosport launched on the platform. The exclusive Carlton Kids and Carlton World channels closed in 2000 to make way for two Discovery channels.
Hub AI
ITV Digital AI simulator
(@ITV Digital_simulator)
ITV Digital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners of multiple licences of the ITV network. Starting as ONdigital in 1998, the service was rebranded as ITV Digital in July 2001.
Low audience figures, piracy issues and an ultimately unaffordable multi-million pound deal with the Football League led to the broadcaster suffering large losses, and it entered administration in March 2002. Pay television services ceased permanently on 1 May of that year, but carriage of the remaining free-to-air channels such as BBC One and Channel 4 continued. In October, ITV Digital’s former terrestrial multiplexes were taken over by Crown Castle and the BBC to create the Freeview free-to-air service.
On 31 January 1997, Carlton Television, Granada Television and satellite company British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) together created British Digital Broadcasting (BDB) as a joint venture, and applied to operate three digital terrestrial television (DTT) licences. They faced competition from a rival, Digital Television Network (DTN), a company created by cable operator CableTel (later known as NTL). On 25 June 1997, BDB won the auction and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) awarded the sole broadcast licence for DTT to the consortium. Then on 20 December 1997, the ITC awarded three pay-TV digital multiplex licences to BDB.
That same year, however, the ITC forced BSkyB out of the consortium on competition grounds; this effectively placed Sky in direct competition with the new service as Sky would also launch its digital satellite service in 1998, although Sky was still required to provide key channels such as Sky Movies and Sky Sports to BDB. With Sky as part of the consortium, British Digital Broadcasting would have paid discounted rates to carry Sky's television channels. Instead, with its positioning as a competitor, Sky charged the full market rates for the channels, at an extra cost of around £60million a year to BDB. On 28 July 1998, BDB announced the service would be called ONdigital, and claimed it would be the biggest television brand launch in history. The company would be based in Marco Polo House (since demolished) in Battersea, south London, which was previously the home of BSkyB's earlier rival, British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB).
Six multiplexes were set up, with three of them allocated to the existing analogue broadcasters. The other three multiplexes were auctioned off. ONdigital was given one year from the award of the licence to launch the first DTT service. In addition to launching audio and video services, it also led the specification of an industry-wide advanced interactive engine, based on MHEG-5. This was an open standard that was used by all broadcasters on DTT.
ONdigital was officially launched on 15 November 1998 amid a large public ceremony featuring celebrity Ulrika Jonsson and fireworks around the Crystal Palace transmitting station. Its competitor Sky Digital had already debuted on 1 October. The service launched with 12 primary channels, which included the new BBC Choice and ITV2 channels; a subscription package featuring channels such as Sky One, Cartoon Network, E4, UKTV channels and many developed in-house by Carlton and Granada such as Carlton World; premium channels including Sky Sports 1 and 3 (later including 2), Sky Premier and Sky MovieMax; and the newly launched FilmFour.
From the beginning, however, the company was quickly losing money. Supply problems with set-top boxes meant that the company missed Christmas sales and retailers had to wait several months for the customers to receive their boxes. Meanwhile, aggressive marketing by BSkyB for Sky Digital made the ONdigital offer look unattractive. The new digital satellite service provided a dish, digibox, installation and around 200 channels for £159, a lower price than ONdigital at £199. Sky had also launched earlier, meaning they had a head start over the ONdigital service. ONdigital's subscription pricing had been set to compare with the older Sky analogue service of 20 channels. In 1999, digital cable services were launched by NTL, Telewest and Cable & Wireless.
In February 1999, ITV secured the rights for UEFA Champions League football matches for four years, which would partly be broadcast through ONdigital. Two sports channels were added to the platform, Champions ON 28 and Champions ON 99 (later renamed ONsport 1 and ONsport 2 when it secured the rights to ATP tennis games), the latter of which timeshared with Carlton Cinema. Throughout 1999, channels including MTV and British Eurosport launched on the platform. The exclusive Carlton Kids and Carlton World channels closed in 2000 to make way for two Discovery channels.