What we did with ITV digital, early in the morning.

Digital TV... alls well that ends well.

Read a bit of background.

So, the license to broadcast on the frequencies left behind by the collapse of ITV digital has gone to the BBC, Sky and Crown Castle. Thier plan is for 24 free-to-air channels. Pay once, just for the hardware, and never pay again.

Seems people who only want a few channels will only go for the BBC package, and the rest of us who don't mind paying will go for the Sky digital service or a local cable TV operator.

The planned channels are...

• BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. (Which most of us get already)
• Channel 4 all over the UK. (Doesn't normally reach Wales)
• Channel 5 all over the UK. (It doesnt get to some areas)
• BBC3^H Choice. (A big pile of....)
• BBC4. (A channel we are supposed to watch)
• CBBC and CBeebies. (Children's TV, when BBC Choice and BBC4 are switched off)
• BBC News 24. (The Six o'clock news all the time)
• BBC Parliament. (Politicans talking)
• ITV2. (See BBC Choice)
• S4C and S4C2. (Welsh language channels)
• Sky News, CNN and ITN. (See BBC News 24)
• Sky Sports News. (Sports News, not sport itself)
• UK History. (Raiding the BBC's vaults for history shows)
• TCM. (The old film channel)
• Boomerang. (The old cartoon channel, including Dangermouse!)
• Sky Travel. (Wanna buy a holiday guv?)
• TV Travel Shop. (See Sky Travel)
• QVC. (Buy buy)
• The community channel. (For charity)
• BBCi. (Ceefax MkII)
• A general entertainment channel. (Sky One? E4? BSB Galaxy? To be announced.)
• More super-teletext services. (To be announced. BBCi with adverts?)
• A music channel. (MTV? VH1? Box? Smash Hits? Music Choice? To be announced)
• Six radio stations. (To be announced)

Notable by thier absense...

• Anything from Discovery. Sure, UK History and BBC4 are in there, but they are not general documentry channels. Why is "History" so special? Why not UK Nature, UK Science, UK Geography, UK Language, etc.
• Nostaligia channels such as UK Gold and Granada Plus. Where are we going to get Sweeney repeats now?
• Sky One and E4. (Unless one of these is the mysterious general entertainment channel.) Is Star Trek Enterprise and the West Wing for paying customers only?
• Sport. Just "Sports News", and whatever sport BBC/ITV/C4/C5 happen to show.
• Films. Only TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and occasional films shown on BBC/ITV/C4/C5.
• Porn. Even the incredibly low quality Men-and-Motors has gone. Only the occasional Channel 5 piece remains.

The reason for the absense of these channels isn't a lack of capacity (two travel channels and four news channels anyone?) but that there is no scope for payment. The channels which are going to be carried are funded by taxes or adverts.

Technology is going to make TV advertising obsolete. Once Tivo-esque systems, with it's 30-second skip function, become established, will anyone want to pay to advertise any more? It worries me that this new service has firmly put itself into the advertising model. When (if?) the advertising market dries up, will this new service face ruin as well?

Maybe the advertising TV companies will try and leglislate the 30-second skip away, just like the coach companies managed to buy the red flag laws for the new motor car. This tactic is doomed to failure. (When was the last time you saw a red flag man?)

To close the market to pay TV entirely seems a bit short sighted. There are people who wold love the Sky Digital service, but cannot because their rental agreement means they can't have a dish. DTT only needs a regular TV aeriel to work. Perhaps when (if) the existing analogue services are switched off, a few pay TV providers will take up the slack.

ITV digital failed because they tried to carry too many channels in too little capacity, and they spent too much on football rights. Sky is doing fine with it's subscription model of TV, and when (if) advertising is finished, they may be the only one's left.

All channel names are probably trade marks of thier various owners, but who cares. The author is a customer of Sky Digital.