ITV FTA from Nov 1st

Tony

Molly Dawson wrote:

Which one is SkyDigital? Don't tell me it is 2D

Sky digital uses all satellites in the group including eurobird

Mossy Monk

Molly Dawson wrote:

I thought Free to View in regards to Satellite is: - On SkyDigital you still need a 'Free View' card. But all you will receive are channels that are not encrypted. Is this statement correct?

you are half correct

a FTV card (Free To View) is needed to watch ITV, Channel 4 and five on satellite now as they are encrypted

when ITV goes FTA (Free To Air) no card is needed to watch it just like the BBC's as they will not be encrypted

hope that clears it up for you

Capt'n Midnight

Tony wrote:

Fair enough but I was offended by the $ remark. No hard feelings

<cough>€<cough>:p

Seriously It's just sinking in - Channel 4 will be about the only decent channel that NTL basic will offer that you won't be able to get free. Pity NTL don't do an option for Broadband and Phone without the TV.

NTL BASIC CABLE
Aerial - RTE 1 / Network 2 / TV3 /TG4

FTA
BBC1 (all regions)
BBC2
UTV actually one of the better ITV channels - but FTA will mean you can choose to watch something else if you want to avoid politics and sometimes the films on on a half an hour earlier.
Sky News

Channels that won't be FTA Some people will miss them more than others.
Channel 4 - for me this would be the one I'd miss most /me hugs FTV card

Sky One ( Repeats )

MTV - I can remember when they played videos - far more music on FTA

Nickelodeon - let them watch CBeebies / CBBC instead - no ads and no accents are closer to home

CNBC Europe - CNN is FTA
if you want financials Bloomberg is FTA on Hotbird

Discovery Channel - Be honest you've seen half of it already on C4 / BBC2 / Network 2

E4 - It's channel 4 more or less, I can't see anyone who can live without channel 4 missing this.

Setanta Sports - ITV do F1

Paramount Comedy - The funny stuff I've seen before.

FTA also gives you
BBC3 / BBC4 / and a load of news channels

L1011

CNBC Europe is free on Astra 1, as is MTV if you can stand watching their shows with subtitles. And it shows music.

djpaul

Will ITV 4 be on the EPG? Ch 120 maybe? I think it's certain that ITV1 , 2

won't be on the EPG and have to tune in via "Other Channels" for viewers in
the republic.:(

Mossy Monk

i doubt it seeing as the Champions League matches are moving from ITV2 to ITV4. TV3 might not like it

Mayo Exile

How accurate is this info about ITV going FTA on Nov 1st? There's not a peep on Digital Spy about it. Or is this forum to be praised for a world exclusive?!! Perhaps somebody who's registered at Digital Spy can post there to get UK reaction?

bigpaddy2004

Mayo Exile wrote:

How accurate is this info about ITV going FTA on Nov 1st? There's not a peep on Digital Spy about it.

From the horses mouth...as they say!

Charles Slane

Mayo Exile wrote:

How accurate is this info about ITV going FTA on Nov 1st? There's not a peep on Digital Spy about it. Or is this forum to be praised for a world exclusive?!! Perhaps somebody who's registered at Digital Spy can post there to get UK reaction?

I've already posted the info, but the UK forums are not as interested as we are because they already have analogue access to ITV1, automatically have both it and ITV2 if they have a Sky subscription, and can get them on a Freesat card very easily if they don't want to subscribe to Sky. On top of all that they can get them on terrestrial digital too. So it's only a really big deal in the UK to non-Skybox satellite enthusiasts.

As well as that, the level of information and debate is far superior here.

Our man in Havana

Charles Slane wrote:

As well as that, the level of information and debate is far superior here.

Got it in one there Charles! :d

Mayo Exile

Oops! Sorry about that Charles Slane! You're right, its not a big issue in the UK. Maybe it will only concern those where geography denies reception of a terrestrial digital signal as well as having only an FTA based system as well.

Bigpaddy. If it's from the horses mouth that will do! Roll on Nov 1st!

bk

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Seriously It's just sinking in - Channel 4 will be about the only decent channel that NTL basic will offer that you won't be able to get free. Pity NTL don't do an option for Broadband and Phone without the TV.

While it is great news, this won't have much effect on NTL, Chorus will be hurt by it, but not NTL so much.

NTL is very handy to have in a rental property where you can feed it into as many TV's, VCR's, etc. in as many rooms as you like.

Also many people in Dublin (NTL's main area) aren't allowed to put up satellite dishes or aerials.

NTL has a very low churn rate, about 0.7%.

BANZAI_RUNNER

hi , can someone post the frequencies etc for ITV2 ...Thanks

Charles Slane

BANZAI_RUNNER wrote:

hi , can someone post the frequencies etc for ITV2 ...Thanks

They're on the end of the "How to tune in extra BBC channels" thread, which is a sticky at the top of the page.

Hopefully it'll soon be worth changing the title of that thread to "How to tune ITV and BBC channels"

Tony

bk wrote:

While it is great news, this won't have much effect on NTL, Chorus will be hurt by it, but not NTL so much.

Nonsense, NTL is suffering as it is and this will hasten loss of custom.

Tony

Jungle Boy wrote:

Does this mean that on November 1st, each ITV1 region will be allocated a EPG number?
If you use a UK Sky Digibox without a card, #101 is defaulted as BBC1 London & #102 is BBC2 England. So that viewers can view their local BBC services, each BBC1/2 are given a EPG number between 940-962.
On November 1st, a UK Sky Digibox without a card will have ITV1 London on #103. So to watch UTV as FTA, it will need a EPG number.

It will not be in the EPG as mentioned already

Freddie59

Tony wrote:

Nonsense, NTL is suffering as it is and this will hasten loss of custom.

Yeah you're probably right Tony. 370,000 analogue; 120,000 digital, and some 30,000 BB customers. They're really suffering alright!! BBC FTA really seems to have had some impact;) . And the arrival of TV3 (oops sorry ITV) will probably do the same!

I think the point we're all missiing here is that BBC and ITV do not carry the same weight as they did even ten years ago. If this had happened then it probably would have done serious damage to the cablecos. The TV market is evolving every day. The fact the Sky/NTL's combined digital base is ober 400,000 is proof of this.

People (especially the 20/30-somethings) want a lot more choice than their older predecessors. It's a pity that some people are wishing on the demise of NTL/Chorus. Can you only imagine what it would be like if the field was wide open for Sky?

Be careful what you wish for - you might just get it.:rolleyes:

Our man in Havana

It would be no harm if the ground opened and swallowed up Chorus.

Freddie59

Bond-007 wrote:

It would be no harm if the ground opened and swallowed up Chorus.

Amazing comment. Let's throw 600 Irish workers on the dole. Sad.:(

L1011

Freddie59 wrote:

Amazing comment. Let's throw 600 Irish workers on the dole. Sad.:(

Come on, if Liberty hadn't bought them they'd be on the dole already. Chorus are an utter basketcase of a company.

watty

Chorus and NTL are being rationalised as one operation by new owner.

NTL does or did operate a few MMDS areas and Chorus does operate Cable areas as well as MMDS.

I don't think you can differentiate anymore between Chorus and NTL, but between:
Analog cable with no frills,
Digital Cable with BB and phone options
Analog MMDS (11 ch approx)
Digital MMDS (55 ch?, up to 120 ch when Analog MMDS turned off which could be any time they choose, unlike Analog regular TV).

Analog only Cable and Analog only MMDS is doomed. But Digital Cable has some future, with BB offering.

In theory Digital MMDs is viable, except the maintenence cost is high and system has been poorly installed leading to bad reputation of "freeze ups". It could have been marketed with Wireless phone and Wireless BB, but Chorus messed up on rollout and lost Wireless Phone licence. They also had serious supply problems and financing problems with the "Powernet" wireless BB and at this stage may pull plug on it.


The problems of Chorus and NTL was too little investment too late. If they had had the vision and finance they could have been rolling out phone, BB and digital on both Wireless and Cable _LONG_ before Sky went Digital.

The new owner will have to run as fast as he can to stand still.

The original reason for "multichannel" in Ireland (Cable and MMDS) was _ONLY_ BBC & ITV. This is now not so true due to Setanta, Sky Sport and perhaps some things such as BigBrother & Sport on C4 & Five.

The original reason for Cable /MMDS existance shortly won't exist. Many folks like me have no interest in BigBrother or Sport, so why would they pay for subscription TV, often of poor technical delivery quality compared with Satellite.

watty

I head that NTL call centre to be closed and only Chorus call centre used...

There have been large ongoing "rationalisation" (job cuts) in NTL / Chorus accelerated since UGC (UCG?) took over.

watty

I really can't see remaining "deflector" operators getting another whip around to keep going next year..

Freddie59

watty wrote:

Chorus and NTL are being rationalised as one operation by new owner.

NTL does or did operate a few MMDS areas and Chorus does operate Cable areas as well as MMDS.

I don't think you can differentiate anymore between Chorus and NTL, but between:
Analog cable with no frills,
Digital Cable with BB and phone options
Analog MMDS (11 ch approx)
Digital MMDS (55 ch?, up to 120 ch when Analog MMDS turned off which could be any time they choose, unlike Analog regular TV).

Analog only Cable and Analog only MMDS is doomed. But Digital Cable has some future, with BB offering.

In theory Digital MMDs is viable, except the maintenence cost is high and system has been poorly installed leading to bad reputation of "freeze ups". It could have been marketed with Wireless phone and Wireless BB, but Chorus messed up on rollout and lost Wireless Phone licence. They also had serious supply problems and financing problems with the "Powernet" wireless BB and at this stage may pull plug on it.


The problems of Chorus and NTL was too little investment too late. If they had had the vision and finance they could have been rolling out phone, BB and digital on both Wireless and Cable _LONG_ before Sky went Digital.

The new owner will have to run as fast as he can to stand still.

The original reason for "multichannel" in Ireland (Cable and MMDS) was _ONLY_ BBC & ITV. This is now not so true due to Setanta, Sky Sport and perhaps some things such as BigBrother & Sport on C4 & Five.

The original reason for Cable /MMDS existance shortly won't exist. Many folks like me have no interest in BigBrother or Sport, so why would they pay for subscription TV, often of poor technical delivery quality compared with Satellite.

Depends on your age and house occupation Watty! I have four teens, am quite partial myself to channels beyond BBC/ITV (which I also like) such as Sky One, Discovery, E4, etc. I have base NTL analogue/Digital pack for €30 and 3 Meg BB for €45. I couldn't even consider a FTA system. If I did I'd then have to subscribe to Sky and would be back to square one! I'm very happy with what I have.:)

bigpaddy2004

Bond-007 wrote:

It would be no harm if the ground opened and swallowed up Chorus.

That's an awful awful thing to say. You would like the ground to open up and swallow up a large irish company employing irish men and women with husbands and wifes, children, mortgages, etc...

A shrrr why not let ALL our money go cross the water, we'll get some more anyway as public artists AKA (THE DOLE.)

bk

Tony wrote:

Nonsense, NTL is suffering as it is and this will hasten loss of custom.

Yes, now that it has some 350,000 customers, 110,000 Digital and some 30,000 BB with the BB and digital customer numbers growing at a very high rate.

And when Chorus and NTL merge there will be over 550,000 customers, making them the largest pay tv operator in Ireland and almost doubling Sky's numbers.

Also NTL:Ireland has a 0.7% churn rate which is one of the lowest in the industry across Europe. (NTL:UK suffers from 16.8% and Sky:UK from about 15%).

So yes, NTL:Ireland is doing so badly :rolleyes:

However they will have to fight to keep their position with the emergence of new platforms such as DTT, Freesat and IPTV. In particular the Chorus network is in a pretty week.
NTL will need to offer many value added services, such as PVR, VoD, cheaper digital prices, BB and phone, in order to keep its position.

Dr. Nick

bigpaddy2004 wrote:

A shrrr why not let ALL our money go cross the water

...give the country back to the Queen and apologise for it's condition

bigpaddy2004

...give them the remaining counties why not. Lets just throw our hat at it:mad:

PacMan

Slightly going off topic here lads !!!
Its great news that ITV-1/2 are going fta. I have a Sky Digital sub, and have NO intention of giving it up. I also have FTA satellite recievers in different rooms in the house for the BBC's and Sky news etc. Having the ITV stations will be a welcome bonus, even though TV-3 shows most of its programming already. the more channels thats FTA, the better. !! And to add my rant ... I have had Chorus in the past before I got Sky. Its a totally crap service. picture is dreadful and the C/S people at Chorus are untrained and unproffesional. dreadful company. End of PacMans rant.

djpaul

BBC FTA, ITV FTA, Who are we going after next lads?? Channel 4, 5!:)

What other channels would you like to see FTA?