ITV and Sky close to deal for ITV and ITV2

Gadgie

From Digital Spy (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/displayarticle.php?id=4250):

ITV and Sky close to deal for ITV and ITV2

Sky and ITV are in the final leg of negotiations to bring ITV1 and ITV2 to digital satellite.

According to an article in today's Times (a company also owened by News Corp) the deal will be for £13 million a year - Sky were reported to have asked for £20 million while ITV had offered £5 million.

The Times report also states that ITV Sport is being negotiated on but is unlikely to be resolved immediately.

Where this will leave ROI viewers is unclear...

/me thinks it's time to order that BBC card.....

Gadgie

Erm... after second read I realise that the report didn't have anything to do with conditional access as I originally thought for some reason (probably due to the amount of money involved).....

Oh well... my original comments still stand

Gadgie

Originally posted by Glennus
Erm... after second read I realise that the report didn't have anything to do with conditional access as I originally thought for some reason (probably due to the amount of money involved).....

Oh yes! Now I know where I got it from: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/index.php

today's top news stories...

ITV and Sky close to deal for ITV and ITV2

The Times today reports that ITV and Sky are close to a deal for use of the Conditional Access system. More...

So... back again to my original comments we go...

BTW, is replying (twice) to your own posts a sign of madness??

Charles Slane

We're all a bit mad around here.

The news that ITV and Sky are close to a deal on conditional access may well be bad news for ROI viewers.

For all we know UTV may not have yet reached any agreement regarding carriage in southern Ireland, in which case we may not receive any ITV channel at all.

The other thing that's interesting is the news that in the UK there will be other ITV channels in the 900's, but there's only two EPG numbers mentioned, suggesting that UK viewers will only get their two neighbouring regions. Where would that leave Irish viewers ? Probably in the same situation as we are with the BBC, where we can only see BBC2NI while UK viewers have access to all BBC2s.

Isn't it amazing that there's still so much speculation about a service that may begin on Tuesday ??

PacMan

Has anyone actually received confirmation from UTV that they will be available to viewers of Sky in the Republic on the 20th?
I e-mailed them last week, and even though they "Flaunt" their .ie web address on their web page and tv screens, they have so far failed to reply.
I agree with Charles. This deal between Sky and ITV will probally end up with us watching only UTV as we do with BBC2-NI, without access to the "Other" two regions. Perhaps HTV Wales and that is available in the south east...Just a thought!
Whats the next excitment on this board going to be???
RTE, TV-3 or maybe Ch4???

Charles Slane

Check this out -

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2001/11/18/cnitv18.xml&sSheet=/money/2001/11/18/ixfrontcity.html

It certainly looks like a deal is close. We'll probably hear something tomorrow, and then it's goodbye to the ITV regions.

If you're one of those people who dearly love TV station idents and logos (which I must admit, I'm not), I'd suggest you spend the day with your video recorder, taping all those classy Meridian idents (!)

byte

I always get replies from UTV. You must be using wrong email address. Use info@utvplc.com as this gets replies. Unfotunately, not the right ones. My most recent reply, last Thursday is as follows:

Thank you for your e-mail.

The ITV Network Centre is dealing with this matter and they have passed on the following information to us:

ITV has committed to making its broadcasts, including 16 regional services, available on digital satellite by the end of the year. This remains our intention.

At this stage we cannot confirm whether the ITV regions will launch as part of the Sky package, but we can confirm that viewers in digital satellite homes will have access to ITV by the end of the year. We will announce a date for launch in due course.

The situation regarding ITV2/UTV2 is slightly different, and at this moment in time we do not have further details as to when these will be available via digital satellite - the services have been offered and are still under negotiation.

Originally posted by Charles Slane:

If you're one of those people who dearly love TV station idents and logos (which I must admit, I'm not), I'd suggest you spend the day with your video recorder, taping all those classy Meridian idents (!)

I am getting very frustrated, with all the speculation now-Roll on Tuesday-'till we see whats happening.
It seems that some of the companies, who divide their services into two areas-the only difference in them being a different local news, are saying,their viewers will have access to both in the 900's.
I suppose that could easily be done whilst restricting other areas to their own local one on 103 only.
But then other companies are saying -all other regions would be available in the 900's.
For my two pence worth , I think the latter will be the case in the UK and that we'll see them on the epg but have the channell not available message! :mad:
Would some one tell the advertisers-that human nature will probably lead people to watch their own local region on 103 anyhow and its just the curious or people like ourselves that will dip into the 900's from time to time.
mm

DMC

Originally posted by Charles Slane
If you're one of those people who dearly love TV station idents and logos (which I must admit, I'm not), I'd suggest you spend the day with your video recorder, taping all those classy Meridian idents (!)

Well, they're all generic now but....

http://gofree.indigo.ie/~dmcahill/itvtests.htm

I went mad last weekend! This, Charles, is exactly what I did last Sunday afternoon!

DMC

Well, I for one wouldn't mind UTV being the only channel on the EPG, so long as the other regions are available on "Other Channels"

That I would be happy with.... But now that looks unlikely..

Originally posted by DamoDMC:

I went mad last weekend! This, Charles, is exactly what I did last Sunday afternoon!

DamoDMC,
I'm going to miss all those colourfull idents
I'm bookmarking that page as TV/aerials/hi-fi etc is the type of madness,I suffer from (no known cure:D )
mm

Charles Slane

And a nice job too, Damo !!

Hopefully we won't have to rely on your screen grabs to see other ITV region's idents after Tuesday.

Charles Slane

The names on the tests have changed to the ITV region names on the now and next captions.

It's getting closer to the day of "reckoning" (and I "reckon" we may end up with no ITV at all, or just UTV).

Charles Slane

By the way, the BBC2s in the 900's have been moved in the UK EPG to make room for the extra two ITV regions that some people may get.

Full report here - http://www.skydigital.mediabullet.co.uk/

As a matter of interest, assuming we were to get UTV as standard, which other two ITV regions would you ideally like to have. Given a choice, I'd go for Carlton/LWT and Scottish. I reckon you'd get the broadest rang of variations with those.

Four eyes

Charles, if we do end up with "just" UTV, do you reckon it'll still be via the other channels option and not as an EPG number?

Here's hoping we'll still have some version of it tomorrow night!

Originally posted by Charles Slane:

As a matter of interest, assuming we were to get UTV as standard, which other two ITV regions would you ideally like to have. Given a choice, I'd go for Carlton/LWT and Scottish. I reckon you'd get the broadest rang of variations with those.

Charles-I think what they are getting at in that piece is that a company like Anglia has four main transmitters in its area-With the exact same channel ie: Anglia-except two of their transmitters opt out to give a different local news for the west of the Anglia region and the other two do the "East" Anglia news service.
The same happens in Carlton westcountry's region.
So what they are saying is , if ITV on sky is postcoded, and you live in a "borderline" postcode you will have the option of both.

I don't think it's going to be a case for everyone in the UK having their own local on 103 and a choice of two more-It's just to get over the anomoly of county borders really.
My bet is still: 103 for the local and the rest in the 900's
But what happens to us lot, in ROI???
Now theres the millionaire question!! to be answered tomorrow hopefully.
The ideal answer of course for us on the boards would be that the Irish EPG has no ITV channel on it except UTV(if they conclude a deal to go on in ROI) and that all of them continue to be available as added channels.
I say this because-If they go to the bother of putting them on the Irish EPG-with Channel not available-Then of Course you'll get that message if you add them aswell:(
mm
My speeeelings are aatttrocccious tonitteee

byte

Well, as I see it, as ITV will use CA, you'll only get whatever region(s) you're entitled to. I seriously don't think that the rest would be available via Other Channels. It would be fully encypted like BBC1. But I would be very happy with UTV solely.

Also, what about ITV2? Being a digital-only channel like E4, will we get it? Hope so:rolleyes: