OH NO! Looks like ITV are thinking of going Pay Per View

liamtech

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/7113808/ITV-looks-to-pay-per-view-to-restore-profits.html

This would obviously effect FTA viewers in ireland big time. Thing is i cant see it working!
Forgetting about ROI for now, FREESAT are selling the boxes(HD + SD) to the general public and one of the selling points is ITV2, 3 and 4! Just to clarify my understanding is that freesat proper in the UK does not do Pay per view... far as im aware only sky offer it!

Any thoughts?

I quite like 2, 3, &4 myself. I could live without the timeshift versions i suppose but they are quite handy!

Elmo

When I didn't have them I didn't miss them.

ITV has gone to hell in the last 10 years.

I don't think I will miss them when they are gone again.

Top Up TV do provide some PPV TV on FreeView and Sky wanted to do something called sky picnic a while back.

ITV run one of the Ditigal MUXs AFAIK in the UK.

http://www.topuptv.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Picnic

M5

ITV 2-4 are so far behind BBC 2-4 for me, I'd miss ITV HD if that went, great for the footy

cjt156

Who is going to pay-per-view to watch endless repeats of Midsomer Murders and Poirot?

Tony

They have been talking about this for months.

slegs

ITV1 and ITV1 HD will not go Pay TV. It is only ITV2 to 4 they are talking about.

Minstrel27

Tony wrote: »

They have been talking about this for months.

Yes. There is still no guarantee that it will even happen.

Widescreen

I see the name Adam Crozier mentioned. He is a tough cookie,who was once Chief Exec of Premier League and more recently with Royal Mail. If they need tough decisions he is well able to make them I think!

Elmo

Widescreen wrote: »

I see the name Adam Crozier mentioned.

He's their new CEO.

Owenw

Meh, I haven't watched a thing on ITV 1-4 in donkeys... IMO they haven't produced anything of note in the past 10 years and their DVD box-sets are dirt -cheap on Amazon anyway.

tomslick

The only thing of note that was ONLY on itv was the comedy Benidorm. I couldn't record it on sky+ and it was on at a $h1t time so I had to torrent it. Itv is crap and I'd include Xfactor and the other variants of Simon Cowells talent show(s).

enfant terrible

tomslick wrote: »

The only thing of note that was ONLY on itv was the comedy Benidorm. I couldn't record it on sky+ and it was on at a $h1t time so I had to torrent it. Itv is crap and I'd include Xfactor and the other variants of Simon Cowells talent show(s).

Benidorm is about the worst thing on TV

greendom

Owenw wrote: »

Meh, I haven't watched a thing on ITV 1-4 in donkeys... IMO they haven't produced anything of note in the past 10 years and their DVD box-sets are dirt -cheap on Amazon anyway.

Your missing out on TV Burp - best thing on tv - look out for it on Saturday evening - Harry Hill is a hoot

snaps

no body will pay for ITV 2-4. It will never work. now is the wrong time to be doing anything like that as people are cutting back.

Im sure it would be bundled into current sky subs and not be a seperate sub. Possibly just FTV on a FTV card as well, but that then defeats the object.

Kashkai

But is this the thin edge of the wedge when it comes to the replacing of freesat with paysat? Could the BBC and itv have planned it this way to get people away from sky and hooked up to freesat and then they start introducing pay per view channels or paying for sport? I've been advising family and friends to ditch sky for freesat but will have to eat humble pie if freesat is no longer free.

SRB

ITV need money and this is an easy way (in theory) to get it. Like most posters here, to be honest, I wouldn't miss their channels and I wouldn't pay for them.

Elmo

BBC won't go pay TV on Satellite. However (I have said this before) perhaps ITV are looking to increase the price Pay Cable and Satellite providers pay for their channels, perhaps that market is enough for them in terms of advertising revenues.

Tony

How would they get people on Freesat to pay? Its very unlikely they will ask everyone to change their set top boxes.

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

But is this the thin edge of the wedge when it comes to the replacing of freesat with paysat? Could the BBC and itv have planned it this way to get people away from sky and hooked up to freesat and then they start introducing pay per view channels or paying for sport? I've been advising family and friends to ditch sky for freesat but will have to eat humble pie if freesat is no longer free.

snaps

Advertising revenue will decrease as well if they go the pay route.

Elmo

snaps wrote: »

Advertising revenue will decrease as well if they go the pay route.

I am sure that ITV know their audience and if the majority of their ITV 2 - 4 audience are on a pay platform they may be willing to let go of their FTA viewers for the extra money the could negotiate with Sky and Virgin.

Perhaps they want to close ITV 2 - 4 and replace with VOD PPV.

ch750536

Its just a play to get more cash from the BBC, nothing more.

source

Elmo

ch750536 wrote: »

Its just a play to get more cash from the BBC, nothing more.

source

Let C4 take over the local and regional news.

Bob_Harris

Irish viewers won't notice any difference if ITV was to disappear from Freesat, they just have to turn on TV3 to see all their favourite ITV shows.

sesswhat

Bob_Harris wrote: »

Irish viewers won't notice any difference if ITV was to disappear from Freesat, they just have to turn on TV3 to see all their favourite ITV shows.

As long as you are one of the Irish viewers TV3 consider fit to receive their channel .

Widescreen

Bob_Harris wrote: »

Irish viewers won't notice any difference if ITV was to disappear from Freesat, they just have to turn on TV3 to see all their favourite ITV shows.

Presumably you mean TV3 via the analog signal? If so you'll have to put up with a 4:3 aspect picture instead of glorious widescreen on ITV

Elmo

They aren't talking about ITV1 and I don't think they get to talk about UTV or STV.

Kashkai

Tony wrote: »

How would they get people on Freesat to pay? Its very unlikely they will ask everyone to change their set top boxes.

Could they not scramble their channels and force people to buy a new box with a card slot? Personally I wouldn't pay for itv 2,3 & 4

Tony

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Could they not scramble their channels and force people to buy a new box with a card slot? Personally I wouldn't pay for itv 2,3 & 4

that would effectively mean scrapping the whole freesat system which I think extremely unlikely.

zbluebirdz

Widescreen wrote: »

Presumably you mean TV3 via the analog signal? If so you'll have to put up with a 4:3 aspect picture instead of glorious widescreen on ITV

Also, you have to put up with the almost non-existence of subtitles as well.
ITV2-4 have a high level of subtitles and TV3 has a low-level.

Mike 1972

ITV3 would be a loss in that it carries a lot of reruns from the days when there was actually programmes worth watching on ITV

The others (especially the +1 EPG cluutter) = no loss really

ITV 3 not worth paying for though

Although what about freeview. Arent ITV "gifted" guranteed capacity on DTT. Is this not conditional on them staying FTA ?

Elmo

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Although what about freeview. Arent ITV "gifted" guranteed capacity on DTT. Is this not conditional on them staying FTA ?

Only for ITV1 not ITV 2 - 4. ITV could not put ITV1 as a pay service unless they came to some agreement with STV and UTV.

Also worth mentioning that ITV Plc recently bought Disney's share of GMTV, which could make Pay TV plans easier.

killalanerr

you can be sure that sky are very keen to have itv1/2 on their platform,they would use it to give the impression that free view will not last,for this very reason sky might make itv an offer they just cant refuse,itv1 will still be fta,

Mike 1972

Elmo wrote: »

Only for ITV1 not ITV 2 - 4.

Thought ITV2 was part of the deal originally when DTT was launched ?

Elmo

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Thought ITV2 was part of the deal originally when DTT was launched ?

You could be right but why didn't UTV and STV get second channels. I know UTV have UTV2 for a few years but I thought with the end of ITV Digital that it wasn't working out for them.

Peter Henderson

ITV 4 carry live darts and also the Isle of Mann TT. There was some annoyance there when ITV 4 left Freeview Lite last September (I think the Isle of Mann is all Freeview Lite) . Doesn't ITV 4 show live boxing as well ?

Motorsportmad

I recently purchased a freesat box and noticed there is a slot for pay channels on it. I wonder if making some of the channels like ITV 2,3,4 etc was part of this plan, personally I couldnt be bothered in paying for any sort of tv, pay enough through license etc.

Mike 1972

Technically this thread title is incorrect (the "pay per view" bit) as its rather unlikely that ITV would be looking to charge for individual programmes