The Money Programme- ITV Digital

Programme by the BBC on the demise of ITV Digital. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes... for more information on the programme and the fall of ITV Digital.

[@christianvillareal1]

FACT: After ITV Digital/ONDigital ceased operations, the Independent Television Commission revoked their DTT licenses and their digital multiplexes to BBC, Crown Castle (now Arqiva) and Sky to launch its DTT platform "Freeview UK" on October 30, 2002. 2 years later, former ITV Digital’s owners Carlton and Granada were merged to form ITV plc.

[@alanbain7471]

The regulator made a fatal mistake kicking Sky out of the project. If Sky was a friend rather than a competitor it could have worked and even if it had failed Sky would have shared the financial hit.

[@hothatchfan472]

+Alan Bain Not sure about that if sky would have been involved it would have made even more powerful than it is now. I don`t think it could have ever worked spending that amount of money on lower league football games. The problem was Lack of advertising revenue because of lack of interest in the games itv digital were showing. Giving the free boxes away was a good idea and probably extended itv digital lifetime. Having a friend who works with sky and fits the boxes he has told me the boxes cost 60p to make and 40p to deliver. And the subscription cost is not important. The money they make comes from advertising revenue. For example now Sky are making good profits and share prices have gone up more than subscription costs have Due to the advertising revenue. There is some people who think that if sky was free with no subscription cost they could double there profits in 6 months due to increased viewers and higher advertising revenues. I am glad sky was not involved in the itv digital saga. If they were the sports world would be dominated by them. Now we do have some rivals with the bt sport channels which is healthy for the viewers.

[@evertonporter7887]

Look at the size of those boxes😂😂! Glad I waited for Freeview while watching ITV Digital go over a cliff.

[@shedsoundsuk]

Basic problem was using an encryption system that was already widely compromised across Europe. Every car boot and dodgy dealer had cards enabling every channel for a one off tenner

[@debbiemckeown7626]

Even if they hadn't overpaid for the football rights, they probably wouldn't have lasted that much longer. Sky and Cable offered better packages and their boxes didn't have a great signal. Carlton and Granada should have paid up and honoured the football league deal.

[@johnking5174]

I remember in 1999 we lived only a few miles from our main transmitter and even there the signal was truly appalling.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

​@@johnking5174The digital terrestrial signal was transmitted at a much lower power, in order to avoid interfering with the existing analogue tv signals, hence why some viewers got it good and others got it rather poorly, with the digital TV signal having variable reception, due to this anomaly.

[@Recessio]

Great footage of Marco Polo House at 06:00. Absolutely criminal it wasn't listed and was allowed to be demolished.

[@97channel]

An interesting documentary, drowning beneath the musical score to Carry On Up The Khyber and the narration of CBeebies.

[@AntarcticaTelevision]

1:53-1:58 - the then (late 90s/early 00s) ITV logos, presented in b/w, as if they were in the 1960s. (Which anybody who has a slight knowledge of the history of ITV and TV in general knows that was not the case.)

[@anthonyperkins7556]

I thought it was all plug'n'play and no issues, but boy was I disappointed, I had a Nokia On Digital set top box / decoder, and noticed a few channels had poor reception despite the existing aerial being in good condition, so I had to fork out £70 for a brand new wideband TV aerial installation to pick up a better signal and that, sort of, defeated the object of it. It did improve my digital terrestrial reception and I had no issues since but it was an extra cost that I could well do without.

[@simonkevnorris]

I must have been lucky as the signal was fine and I did not need an upgrade to the arial. I was living in Sunbury-on-Thames at the time.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

@@simonkevnorris The signal levels were variable, because they were transmitted at far lower levels to the analogue ones. In some areas, even those nearer the transmitters weren't getting it good through their existing roof aerial.

[@kalemjohnson6724]

Both Granada and Carlton ruined ITV forever.

[@evertonporter7887]

Both are dead now.

[@Secret19977]

The side effects for Leeds were enormous

[@DR3ADER1]

Not just Leeds United and Leicester City (clubs who would later rebound and find success in the Premier League decades later due to their size and status) but smaller clubs like Rushden & Diamonds, Bury, Oldham Athletic, and many others would suffer greatly in the 20 years since ITV Digital's collapse.

[@matthall3077]

Recorded On Wednesday 12th June 2002

[@pantonpaul1478]

Over 20 years ago

[@tuttt99]

Tonight on The Money Programme, we're going to look at money. Lots of it. On film, and in the studio. Some of it in nice piles, others in lovely clanky bits of loose change. Some of it neatly counted into fat little hundreds, delicate fivers stuffed into bulging wallets, nice crisp clean checks, pert pieces of copper coinage thrust deep into trouser pockets, romantic foreign money rolling against the thigh with rough familiarity, beautiful wayward curlicued banknotes, filigreed copper plating cheek by jowl with tumbly rubbing gently against the terse leather of beautifully balanced bank books!!

[@Instasamps]

Thought the woman interviewed was james may

[@tomosburton1756]

I remember this, I think for some reason it scared me when I was 9 because I was thinking about what were the last few seconds like! I also remember the one on downloading music which I didn't understand then or now!

[@whatamalike]

I bet the BBC were laughing their fucking arses off over the entire ordeal!

[@clarkejoseph49]

Yeah but they never thought of doing Digital subscription TV during this debacle.

[@clarkejoseph49]

They could have broadcast the ITV Sports channel on Sky and if it was still going, it would share the EFL rights with Sky Sports, UEFA Champions/Europa league and the Vanarama National league with BT, Formula E and the Red Bull Cliff Diving with Eurosport, and AEW and Ring of Honour with Fite TV.

[@MitsubishiGTO]

ITV Sport Channel was available on NTL’s service.

[@Firthy2002]

A deal couldn't be reached for Sky to carry the ITV Sport channel.

[@Mchannnel]

I knew ITV Digital had some chaos but didn’t imagined being THIS bad😂 Freeview-like Digital Terrestrial became the default in my country🇯🇵 and no box is needed. Unfortunately, there’s way less channels compared to the U.K. and the quality is mostly shite …Imagine all of the channels are ITV and Channel 5. Film and Arts programming is pretty much gone now and sports coverage is getting less and less.

[@chasb4515]

for some reason I really like watching stuff about ITV digital and I am 12

[@williamg209two]

good for you *pats head*

[@Rexowogamer]

chas b Yeah, same. Wish I was around for it... if only because CN was on it.

[@castle6742]

The Marco Polo house was cursed for ITV Digital bsb

[@clarkejoseph49]

Good job it got demolished in 2014.

[@Recessio]

Sadly was demolished. Should have been listed as an example of Postmodern architecture, like No 1 poultry. Given it was in Battersea during the redevelopment, I reckon there was some dodgy dealings.

[@sparkidee]

My friends dad has an On box and I remember as a kid watching champions league match on it, yet this program didn't mention this? I remember it being OnSport 1, 2 and possibly a 3rd channel? But according to this program they only had rights to minimal football league games? 🤷‍♂️

[@MitsubishiGTO]

There wasn’t an ONsport 3, but ONsport 1 and 2 became ITV Sport Channel and ITV Sport Extra.

[@mutsortima174]

ITV Digital had signed an exclusive three-year contract with the Football League to show games from its three divisions, and although ITV Digital collapsed after the first season of the contract, the league was unable to sign a new deal until the existing one expired, and thus it was left with no TV coverage at all for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.

[@chrisrowe7503]

Now it makes sense why they both merged in the end.

[@MrThecarebear]

GRANADA - till I die!

[@ttrjw]

The shop isn't in Reigate. It's at Burgh Heath - about 5 miles north.

[@MitsubishiGTO]

What shop is the one in Burgh Heath?

[@ttrjw]

@@MitsubishiGTO Mark Arnell's shop at about 11 minutes in.

[@MitsubishiGTO]

@@ttrjw thanks mate

[@JamesTilsley1]

24:52 Karren Brady!

[@alexojideagu]

Virgin Media works on this model and does well using Sky and BT programmes.

[@johnking5174]

Virgin Media have an advantage of also securing their own television network of distribution through cable - somewhere Sky or any other broadcaster can't go to, as Virgin Media practically own the whole cable television network in the UK and Ireland.

[@AlexOjideagu2]

@@johnking5174 Yes that they purchased from Cable Media/NTL which was a shrewd move.

[@johnking5174]

@@AlexOjideagu2 In America there are a large number of cable companies, meaning that you usually have a choice of two cable TV companies and two satellite companies DirecTV and Dish Network - both satellite companies there offer no free channels whatsoever. No such thing as Freesat there.

[@clarkejoseph49]

And they had their own content when they acquired the Telewest broadband channels (Living, Bravo, Trouble, Challenge) as well as launching Virgin 1 and bringing Setanta Sports to the UK but Sky plc took everything from Virgin media.

[@robertcomer2767]

How the hell can Andrew Neil give such a glowing reference to Charles Allen??

[@johnking5174]

Charles Allen was a good safe pair of hands when he was at Granada Television, before he dared to venture in the digital television world, that is why. Charles Allen is now Baron Allen of Kingston, a Labour Party Life Peer in the House of Lords.

[@robertcomer2767]

@@johnking5174 Really!!! When he started at Granada one of the first questions he asked why are we making programmes? But of course we left that to Carlton. Remember all their great independent outsourced productions?

[@MrThecarebear]

@@robertcomer2767 ITV as a whole was better quality when programme making was fully in-house.

[@sillygoose635]

@@MrThecarebear Don't think so.

[@MrThecarebear]

@@sillygoose635 Yes it was. And the programmes had frontcaps.

[@AlanMcB]

Is that David Cameron at 8:58?

[@ianlacey11]

AlanMcB Indeed it is,David Cameron was an executive at Carlton at the time.

[@thornthehedgehog4086]

ianlacey11 Interesting!

[@evonne_]

+Thorn The Hedgehog Good god

[@robertcomer2767]

Incompetent as a TV executive (sorry this was Carlton) incompetent as a prime minister

[@hudzj01]

@@ianlacey11 head of marketing if I remember…dunno which he did worse running Carlton’s Marketing or being PM

[@Ioniq5N-Gaming]

23:45 BBC News 24 at One intro. (You didn’t think they wouldn’t use one of their own intros in their own program, right?)

[@GromitMugEntertainment]

Does anybody know what the music name is (from 15:50)

[@sophie_drachen]

Sounds like "Someday" by the Strokes. I hope it helps! 😀

[@jacksugden8190]

What would have Sir Alan Suger had made of all that mess?.

[@ttrjw]

Karen Brady at 24:56

[@MitsubishiGTO]

Amstrad actually made Sky Digital boxes until they were absorbed by Sky in 2007

[@seprishere]

Inter alia, ONdigital didn't do a laughable overbid, since Sky did bid £273m for three years. This is in the court judgment when the Football League sued their lawyers (having lost against Granada and Carlton).

[@ronniebuchanan7151]

My friends told me before, because no longer ITV Digital unavailable service losing channels but no money happening took British people unhappy removed they closed.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

OnDigital was very poorly managed

[@johnking5174]

What did we expect when they had the likes of David Cameron working there.

[@evertonporter7887]

OnDigital got shafted by Sky.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

@@evertonporter7887 Kicking Sky out of the project was counterproductive, as a result, Sky charged full retail prices for the carriage of its channels via OnDigital with no discounts whatsoever.

[@evertonporter7887]

@@anthonyperkins7556 Sky ended up being the real winner out of all of this, plus they had plenty of money to spare.

[@astonishingpatch]

@@evertonporter7887 The service may have actually have worked if BSkyB had been allowed to remain part of the consortium. The ITC may have made a terrible mistake.

[@Heard]

ITV... more like LTV

[@estherastudillo8647]

Heh, ITV on BBC.

[@marcb8934]

TV was boring and not worth all this hassle