ITV3 To Be FTV

mickeyboymel

Just found this article on Media Bullet:

04/08/04 ITV3 to launch as free-to-air channel in November
ITV golden oldies channel ITV3 is expected to launch on 1st November as a free service showcasing movies and classic dramas such as Coronation Street and Cold Feet. The decision not to charge viewers comes after months of negotiations and ends speculation that it would be a pay-TV service along the same lines as E4. ITV's chief executive, Charles Allen, is understood to have decided that the station - which is to target upmarket viewers over the age of 35 with repeats of drama classics such as Cold Feet, re-runs of Coronation Street and movies such as The Magnificent 7 - will be broadcast on Freeview, the new BSkyB free service Freesat, and cable. Earlier this year Granada executives were locked in intensive talks with Sky about running the £12m-a-year station as a pay channel. The decision was a difficult choice for Mr Allen, who could have boosted ITV's coffers to the tune of £7m-10m in distribution fees from Sky if it launched as a pay service. But as part of the deal Sky is understood to have wanted an equity stake in ITV3 - a deal Mr Allen was keen to avoid. The move will come as a blow to Sky, which would have preferred ITV3 to have helped grow its own pay-TV platform rather than free-to-air digital service Freeview. If ITV makes the channel free it could make it less likely that the network will re-sign its £17m-a-year conditional access agreement with BSkyB. Currently ITV is the only commercial public service broadcaster not to have renewed the agreement, under which it pays Sky to encrypt a regionalised service.
News Feed: Raj Baddhan Source: MediaGuardian News Break: 10:17

Could this be any indication of ITV's future plans,and given that they intend to turn off all analog transmissions sooner rather than later,Will we see them in a similar position to the BBC later this year?

Brian017

Would be cool if they did.

Richard

mickeyboymel wrote:

ITV3 To Be FTA

I'm slightly confused by this. I doubt ITV3 will be FTA on Satellite - it may TV - i.e. encrypted, but available free of charge to viewers (in the UK at least).

But ITV2 isn't even FTV, it is part of the UK family pack.

ITV3 will be part of Freeview, however, which is a good idea. Hopefully it'll have some interesting programming.

mickeyboymel

Yes sorry FTV is what I meant,still it does queston the enire encription thing,and as ITV have not resigned yet.......

Macy

Think it's the actual article that's confusing the issue. It at least means there's a chance of them going FTA. However, apparently Sky will be selling FTV cards again with the launch of Free Sat (£20), so maybe not as essential as it was?

willg

Macy, Where did you see Sky were to sell FTV cards again for £20 .. was it an article somewhere ?

Macy

Thread on digital spy. here

channelsurfer

does this mean that itv3 will be free to air if itv does not intend to renew its agreement why would they encript it if they are not going free to view with sky..

Richard

Macy wrote:

Think it's the actual article that's confusing the issue.

That is true - it mentions free-to-air. But my main point of confusion is that if ITV3 is FTV on SkyDigital, will ITV2 change according?

mike65

Richard wrote:

Hopefully it'll have some interesting programming.

I'll just let that stand as is!

Mike.

LFCFan

sounds like another UK Gold Station.

byte

Just sounds like Granada Plus rebranded to me.