Sadly once again the innocent viewer is the loser in what looks to me like the latest piece of tit for tat between ITV and Sky.
The decision to make ITV HD Freesat exclusive makes no sense in its own right particularly as Michael Grade always claims he wants to see HD services available as widely as possible as witnessed by his stance on Freeview HD proposals. This will achieve the exact opposite.
It might be different if Freesat were a pay proposition competing with Sky but it isn't. I can see therefore no benefit to ITV HD in denying itself access not only to the existing 500,000 Sky HD subscribers but also effectively to the other 8.5 million Sky subscribers because any honest assessment would suggest that none of those subscribers who might want to move to HD are going to do so by migrating to Freesat paying up to £200 for the box, installation etc whilst at the same time denying themselves their existing Sky subscription channels and the Sky HD packages. Similarly I don't believe there are many people who would seriously anticipate existing Sky subscribers buying a second box, dish etc simply to acquire ITV HD. The people who will buy Freesat will do so irrespective of whether ITV HD is also on Sky.
Some on this and other forums are so blinkered by their anti-Sky obsession that they fail to see that ordinary viewers will be the losers here not Sky. If Sky were looking for platform exclusivity in similar circs they'd be bursting blood vessels in venting their spleens against it.
I am disappointed in Michael Grade who I thought was better than this and had the viewers interests primarily at heart. The reality is however that corporate politics is what this is about. ITV want Sky to divest themselves of their interest in ITV and this is a useful tool to try and hasten that happening.
At its pettiest it is just a way of having a poke at Sky. By the same token Sky will no doubt act in similar fashion in this little tete a tete given the chance. The two have had an uneasy relationship for years.
And who suffers? Anyone who just wants to have access to the best range of HD services who is told if you want them all then you have to pay £200 to a second platform for dish, installation etc with no doubt more holes in walls, cables etc when there is no need.
And how will it end? Answer - Same as it did when ITV 1 eventually came onto Sky. ITV HD will be on Sky - maybe not today or tomorrow but one day as sure as eggs is eggs it will happen. And it will happen not because it is in the viewers interests but because and only because it then suits ITV and / or Sky.
I'd like ITV HD now but I'll have to do without because ITV want to do some petty points scoring. I thought they might rise above it on this occasion. Still its their loss as far as I am concerned. The irony is that me and thousands of other viewers would probably watch shows in HD on ITV just because they are in HD which we wouldn't bother with otherwise. The sad thing is I bet they know that too but don't care if it means they can get one over on Sky.
Sad really.