Page 1 of ITV Digital on the brink

BBC and others are reporting that Carlton and Granada have placed/or are about to place ITV Digital in administration...

Looks like Sky will be picking up 1.2m subscribers very soon.

I am actually one of the dim-wits who pay for their drivel, all for the benefit of their "definitive" sports channel. Luckily I have the luxury of having both, and it`s plain fact ITV are inferior to SKY in EVERY aspect, and more so where it matters. sports coverage. If anybody disagrees with that, I declare it legal to break a bottle over their head & kick them in the knackers. ITV have their Premier-league pundits sitting amist card-board ruble for a set, and they present Nationwide league football in the back of a van.....a van. The only reason I`ve put up with their crap is because they hold the rights to televise my football-team. Come close-season, I hope they are well & truley finished. ITV Digital, what a joke.

and NTL might be next:

A"nd there was more bad news for the television industry as Britain`s largest cable company, NTL, today revealed that it lost a total of £11.2 billion last year.

The loss is equivalent to £3,733 for every customer NTL has in Britain, and far larger than NTL`s total sales last year of £2.57 billion.

If NTL goes under, as rival Telewest also struggles and ITV Digital is under threat of closure, the entire pay-TV market in Britain could be left in the hands of Rupert Murdoch`s BSkyB."


Surely something is VERY wrong when you allow your business to lose nearly £4000 for EVERY csutomer you have!

I went over to Bt a month ago, but kept my NTL for a month while the notice I gave was `served` . 90% of my calls over the last month were on the BT line, their bill £45-00 for the month. NTL bill came in same time & they want well over £100-00 for the same. £15-00 of which is for the Digital box, this is supposed to be also the line rental. WORK THAT ONE OUT. then wonder no more, why they are losing money.

Dixons are doing a deal (in Nottingham anyway) where you can get Sky Digital installed for a tenner - I`ll be watching this story VERY closely : just can`t live without Premiership soccer (keeps my asleep on a Sunday afternoon !) - shame BBC don`t just take over the whole thing and retain Sky Sports for those willing to pay for it.

My next direct debit is due out on the 10th - time to visit the bank, methinks...

They are now in the hands of the administrators, Deloitte & Touche, after applying to the High Court this afternoon. The service will continue, and a review hearing is scheduled for 15th April 2002, to try to enable the Football League and Carlton/Granada to sort their differences.

The 1800 employees are safe for the time being, as are the customers.

Cancel that visit to the bank then...

Story here : there`s about six different articles today ! (Copy and paste whole link) :

http://media.guardian.co.uk/city/story/0,7497,674997,00.html

i dont actually belive i have ever watched ITV digital but a for the likes of NTL and Telewest, i really do hope that they are able to stay in business. If you want the full range of channels then yes you should probably opt for Sky digital but if you want to filter out all the c**p that Sky create then there isnt anything better than NTL, for the reason that you can pretty much state what channels you want and then you get charged accordingly. I think ITV just spemnt way to much on advertising, and what is it with that monkey anyway!

I think it`s time to reach for the "Sky" guys. Question is are us ITV Digital mugs bound by the year contract????

BB

`I think it`s time to reach for the "Sky" guys. Question is are us ITV Digital mugs bound by the year contract????`


Naw , just tell them you can`t afford it anymore and want to renegotiate - works for them !!

So how does this actually affect digital terrestrial TV?

I take it the paid for ITV channels, if ITVDigital closes, will go but who owns the actual transmitters, is it ITV Digital, the Goverment, the BBC, Sky, Some third party.

I was gonna get the Pace £99 job thats being released tomorrow/soon, but if all the free to air stuff is gonna go is there any point?