ITV Digital Day - 20 years on

[Steve Williams]

I wonder if On/ITV Digital went on to succeed and still be with us, would we have had the digital switchover with no free digital alternative? Or would there have been some cumbersome workaround to have a "free" option akin to Freesat from Sky? Get your handful off FTV channels while having the array of pay channels shoved in your face every time you channel hop.

I said this on another thread, I think had it succeeded we'd have been much later into digital switchover, because the two main platforms would have been pay ones, and I think for many people the idea would have been that digital TV = pay TV, which they simply wouldn't have wanted and would never have even considered.

The first "free" boxes were being made available when ITV Digital went pop, via PACE (which was my first proper digibox and I absolutely loved the remote control, it was so ergonomic) so it was on its way, but I think without a proper advertising campaign that Freeview had, there wouldn't have been the take-up there was. I remember predicting at the time of ITV Digital that it would presumably become the dominant platform because switchover were coming, so you'd have to get something and that was the least cumbersome option for so many people. But that would only be if people were absolutely forced to get it. It would have been interesting, actually, you could argue it would have completely changed the nature of British TV in a way, because pay TV would seemingly have become the default.

But I think ITV Digital was a flawed platform anyway, in that if you wanted loads of channels you'd get Sky, and probably already had it anyway, and if you didn't, you were probably happy with what you had. So there weren't that many people to go at.

You'd have to say that digital switchover was a great success because ten years after ITV Digital collapsed it had happened and there were seemingly no major problems at all, you'll recall there were worries when they said they wanted it to happen by 2012 that thousands of people wouldn't be able to watch the Olympics, but in the end the analogue switch-off was so painless most people seemingly didn't notice.

[eggsontoast]

This photo was taken on the balcony area outside the 2nd floor bar area at Kent House.

It's odd they didn't turn 45degrees south and get the view of the northbank really

I don’t think there was much of an OnDigital presence at Kent House,

Not strictly speaking OnDigital, but of course all ITV channels were exclusive to OnDigital for a while so ITV1, ITV2, ITV Sports Channel all from Kent House. Also the Digital 3&4 Muxing centre was on the second floor around the corner from maintainence with its C4 & E4 contribution arrangements back and forth from Horseferry Road.

[TVenthusiasm]

Did not get the service (I had Sky) but I remember seeing the report on On Digital launching where they talked about the service, as well as the ITV rebrand in 1999 (I think) where stickers were sent to rebrand On Digital boxes.

To hear the collapse was a shame because they wanted to show football on the sports channel but they ran out of money

[Neil Jones]

To hear the collapse was a shame because they wanted to show football on the sports channel but they ran out of money

Well they wouldn't have run out of money at that point had they not bid for the football...

[MatijaTelevizija]

I wonder if On/ITV Digital went on to succeed and still be with us, would we have had the digital switchover with no free digital alternative? Or would there have been some cumbersome workaround to have a "free" option akin to Freesat from Sky? Get your handful off FTV channels while having the array of pay channels shoved in your face every time you channel hop.

I’m pretty sure that type of thing was planned but they never got to it

[Cassia Tuna]

I wonder if On/ITV Digital went on to succeed and still be with us, would we have had the digital switchover with no free digital alternative? Or would there have been some cumbersome workaround to have a "free" option akin to Freesat from Sky? Get your handful off FTV channels while having the array of pay channels shoved in your face every time you channel hop.

An even more pertinent question is, had the platform not collapsed and been more successful, would we still have the ITV regions, which as we know were consolidated due to the financial black hole ITV were left with in 2002?

[MatijaTelevizija]

I wonder if On/ITV Digital went on to succeed and still be with us, would we have had the digital switchover with no free digital alternative? Or would there have been some cumbersome workaround to have a "free" option akin to Freesat from Sky? Get your handful off FTV channels while having the array of pay channels shoved in your face every time you channel hop.

An even more pertinent question is, had the platform not collapsed and been more successful, would we still have the ITV regions, which as we know were consolidated due to the financial black hole ITV were left with in 2002?

Again , that was already planned to happen

[Brekkie]

I think DTT would still have been the basis of free to air TV moving forward in the 90s and it woud have been to ITV's advantage to push that to get boxes into peoples homes which people could then easily upgrade to ITV Digital. I'd imagine ITV3 may still have launched free to air too but that may have been it. I think More4 was already in the early planning as a free to air channel in 2002/03 so although E4 and FilmFour would probably have remained subscription services, initially at least, C4 would still have had a second FTA channel further down the line.

Presumably the various Granada and Carlton branded channels would have come under the ITV banner at some point.

[reworP wehttaM]

The only thing I really remember about it was good old Monkey, who I saw on the PG Tips ads when I was younger.

https://youtu.be/wCk4bRVoDxU

Alas, poor Monkey: never got his due as a good spokesman until the PG Tips days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2GqQiSP9gM

[Whataday]

Yeah, PG bought Monkey when ITV Digital closed and it's assets were sold off. They used him in ad campaigns for many years afterwards.

The PG Tips thing didn't happen immediately. Monkey took on a life of his own after ITV Digital and was apparently sold in The Gadget Shop after ITV Digital collapsed, then there was a fight for his property rights (as ITV Digital didn't own him, he was effectively an indie "production" for want of a better word. Comic Relief won out apparently rights-wise) and then after being offered his own show on the BBC (which fell through), Monkey started flogging PG Tips a few years after that.

The rights to Monkey were donated to Comic Relief as a nice way to end the rights dispute between the ad agency and ITV Digital.

He was actually created by The Jim Henson Company.

[Neil Jones]

Monkey did get his own "variety" show, but AFAIK it was never broadcast but I'm not entirely sure it was even made, may have only been an internal pilot:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3267313.stm

May have just been a case of riding the popularity wave. Some mascots just tend to be more successful than the product/service they're made to promote but once their interest wanes...

[Sweetcorn]

When freeview was created and took over was the signal improving or still issues with breaking up now for some freeview areas?
Do people with freeview now still have signal issues or has that all been sorted?

We have a Roku for all streaming and freeview for anything want to watch live even though you can watch through apps etc. Had no issues with freeview but years back on digital was v glitchy.

If on digital had been launched as (free on digital) and focused on free content as marketing then launched the pay for add on contents at much later date would that have worked as people would have got it for free stuff (without indication) of things to pay for add on in coming years etc.

Remember the problems with signal and new aerial needed then a different box to filter out what seemed was traffic on the road interrupted signal.
Is freeview free of issues like this if so has all transmitter signals been boosted ?

[Neil Jones]

Freeview initially was patchy in some areas but when switchover was complete, the bulk of those resolved themselves.

On Digital had been in financial difficulty ever since it launched, and Sky were aggressive with pricing at the time as well thanks to their new Sky Digital packages (and of course they'd been forced out of the consortium on competition grounds) and the football deal On Digital agreed would ultimately finish them off.

[technologist]

Remember the problems with signal and new aerial needed then a different box to filter out what seemed was traffic on the road interrupted signal.
Is freeview free of issues like this if so has all transmitter signals been boosted ?

When uk DTT launched in 1998 there was patchy coverage because the 6 multiplexes had to be squeezed into a band plan designed for 4 analogue networks and had ch 5 added !!
And the transmitters were not as powerful because if this…

Early stb had early chips which were very sensitive to impulse noise ..
central heating or lights being switched on or ‘cars’ etc
Made worse by the aerial down leads being screened by something like a sparse string vest ..
Nowadays the lead is a full screened CT100 …..

And let’s just say that on Digital was driven more by marketeers who over sold the coverage etc rather than engineers who knew the limitations….. they also had a job to do selling pay tv through the aerial as no one else does it ….and some other commercial decisions around football.

Come Freeview twenty years ago …a much clearer proposition ,
technical changes which made it more robust while fitting round analogue
And a realistic coverage expectation ….and v few channels !….PSB plus lcn 16 and uktv etc
But the BBC put it’s radio channels there which increased DAB take up !

At DSO 2010-12 everyone who got analogue tv got digital ……
With a large number of channels and some in HD
and much better (less complex without conditional access ) stb and TVs
It has been a greater success than Greg Dyke expected …