Grade prepared to negotiate with Sky for ITV HD

KeanosMagicHat

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As I'd expected ITV HD will eventually come to Sky HD.

What I didn't expect was Michael Grade to start talking about opening up negotiations with Sky before the Freesat "exclusive" period had already started.

:smashin:

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ITV HD is scheduled to begin broadcasting its regular schedule on Freesat, accessible solely via ITV's red button interactive services, in "a few weeks", it was confirmed today.

Freesat managing director Emma Scott said ITV would be releasing further details of its high definition channel, and commence full broadcasting, in "hopefully a few weeks time".

She confirmed it would be accessible via the red button rather than given an individual EPG slot and that it would initially be viewable exclusively on Freesat equipment.

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade said: "We will launch our HD service with an unrivalled line up of premium football including the FA Cup, England internationals and UEFA Champions League from next season."

Grade did not rule out negotiations for carriage on Sky in the future, however, and said: "We are a commercial organisation and won't give it to Sky for nothing."

Humax, whose Freesat personal video recorder is expected to be the first available when it is released some time in the summer, said it would be able to record ITV HD.

Since last week, Digital Spy forum members have been able to view test transmissions for the service using personal computer-based digital satellite receivers

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Article from DS so unsure whether link is allowed.
 
If the deal they get from sky falls short they can always open up the phone lines :D

Though seriously Grade boasting about all the sport they will show still annoys me. If someone else had the rights to the champions league and the formula one, i.e sky - we would have been watching it in hd ages ago
 
ITV executive chairman Michael Grade said: "We will launch our HD service with an unrivalled line up of premium football including the FA Cup, England internationals and UEFA Champions League from next season."

Unrivalled line up of premium football. oh :lease:

Grade did not rule out negotiations for carriage on Sky in the future, however, and said: "We are a commercial organisation and won't give it to Sky for nothing."

That's right Gradey (may we call you Gradey?), you don't expect Sky to open up your HD service to almost half a million customers, no doubt increasing your advertising revenue potential, perhaps even gaining you some respect, for NOTHING do you?!

:rolleyes:

The weird thing is, I suspect he really does believe ITV have some great power, some card up their sleeve, that should make Sky feel obliged to "do a deal" on HD.

I assume he's not seen this poll: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=755443 which indicates perhaps 5% of HD customers voting could possibly give up Sky to watch ITV HD. :rolleyes:

Apart from the live sport they cover, I think they're a pretty dire broadcaster anyway, even on live sport I find the commentary and coverage to be generally poor! :(

I can honestly say I wouldn't miss them if they went under tomorrow, in fact I'd be delighted because the sport coverage they've paid for would hopefully go to somebody else... Not a chance of that happening I guess though.

:suicide:
 
Though seriously Grade boasting about all the sport they will show still annoys me. If someone else had the rights to the champions league and the formula one, i.e sky - we would have been watching it in hd ages ago

Assuming you have a Sky Sports package that you pay X amount of money a month for that is. Sky customers always seem to conveniently forget that they actually have to pay (quite a lot of money too) for this service! :rolleyes:

Personally, I'm quite happy that these will be offered as part of the TV Licence fee and with no extra charge.
Gae
 
Assuming you have a Sky Sports package that you pay X amount of money a month for that is. Sky customers always seem to conveniently forget that they actually have to pay (quite a lot of money too) for this service! :rolleyes:

Personally, I'm quite happy that these will be offered as part of the TV Licence fee and with no extra charge.
Gae


You don't pay ITV a License fee, they are privately funded by sponsors and advertisers if you hadn't noticed.

Actually the Sports sub is quite reasonable in price, I don't have the sport subs as I hate sport, but if you like sport alot then £17 ppm for 6 sports channels assuming that you aren't paying for HD just for the sport isn't that expensive.

If you are just paying for HD for the sport £27 ppm is becoming expensive.

And if you have the movie channels it costs just £11 for the sports sub.
 
Actually the Sports sub is quite reasonable in price, I don't have the sport subs as I hate sport, but if you like sport alot then £17 ppm for 6 sports channels assuming that you aren't paying for HD just for the sport isn't that expensive.

If you are just paying for HD for the sport £27 ppm is becoming expensive.

And if you have the movie channels it costs just £11 for the sports sub.

Hmmm.....this though is on top of the standard package dont forget...so it all comes around to approx £40-50 a month if you want to watch sports in HD on Sky...a lot of money in my eyes.
Either way you look at it, its still costing money to watch HD football whereas any future Champions League matches on ITV HD will cost nothing for those of us who only want to watch the footie.
That is my whole point and was aimed at thomo14 who said they could have been watching these matches in HD ages ago if it wasn't for ITV HD....but ITV HD will be "FREE" for those people (myself included) who dont subscribe to Sky.

You don't pay ITV a License fee, they are privately funded by sponsors and advertisers if you hadn't noticed.

I know, but we still "all" have to pay a Licence Fee to receive any TV at all so even though ITV doesn't get any of this revenue, we wouldn't be able to "legally" view it in the UK without this Licence Fee. Can anyone "legally" receive ITV without paying the licence fee? No!! Therefore...ipso facto...we are indirectly paying for it.

Its a wierd set up in this digital age really. :confused: The BBC Licence fee is an anachronistic dinosaur in this modern world.

Gae
 
I know, but we still "all" have to pay a Licence Fee to receive any TV at all so even though ITV doesn't get any of this revenue, we wouldn't be able to "legally" view it in the UK without this Licence Fee. Can anyone "legally" receive ITV without paying the licence fee? Therefore...ipso facto...we are indirectly paying for it.
Its a wierd set up in this digital age really isn't it? :confused: The BBC Licence fee is an anachronistic dinosaur in this modern world really.

Gae

Its a wording technicality, we are taxed for the right to view a tv or listen to the radio, this came about originally as there was no advertising and the BBC was a monopoly and needed to be paid for. The wording got changed to cover any TV broadcast to stop people saying "I only watch ITV so I dont want to pay"

The BBC itself has many faults but on the whole its a national asset, It makes a wide range of programming on many subjects that a commercial channel like ITV simply would never do as there would be no return on. Some of the BBCs recent hit shows have started of as minority viewing (Little Britain, Gavin and Stacy etc)

ITV HD will be an irrelevance for me, I cant think of anything they put on apart from F1 (which they lost) that I watch. ITVs mass market middle of the road appeal line up is the kind of dross i detest, football :boring::suicide: x factor, ant n dec, britains got talent, lost in the jungle, soaps, ADVERTS :suicide: it just goes on and on ....
 
.... ITVs mass market middle of the road appeal line up is the kind of dross i detest, football x factor, ant n dec, britains got talent, lost in the jungle, soaps, ADVERTS it just goes on and on ....

Couldn't agree more..... but I do watch the Champions League football and the occasional movies on ITV so if they show them in HD.......:thumbsup:

Personally though, I do like the "retro" stuff they show across the channels like "Space 1999""The Saint" "Hammer House of Horror" "UFO" etc and some of the older classic movies that are shown on ITV 2, 3 and 4...pure nostalgia I know...but guilty as charged! :D

Gae
 
but ITV HD will be "FREE" for those people (myself included) who dont subscribe to Sky.

Do you eat food? Do you drive a car? If so, and you don't steal those goods but actually pay for them over a counter or at a supermarket, then they ain't free. Cos the sellers of those goods are paying ITV a mint to advertise those products, and the money to pay for those adverts is paid for by you, me and every one else who ever does any shoping.
 
Couldn't agree more..... but I do watch the Champions League football and the occasional movies on ITV so if they show them in HD.......:thumbsup:

Personally though, I do like the "retro" stuff they show across the channels like "Space 1999""The Saint" "Hammer House of Horror" "UFO" etc and some of the older classic movies that are shown on ITV 2, 3 and 4...pure nostalgia I know...but guilty as charged! :D

Gae

Nothing worse than finding a gem of a film you havnt seen before, your on the edge of your seat and the adverts come on .... :mad:

Or even worse your watching a classic action film and they cut all the "gore" scenes from it :mad::mad::mad::thumbsdow:thumbsdow:thumbsdow which itv and C4 do all the time ...
 
Wow, you guys are so harsh!!

Do you eat food? Do you drive a car? If so, and you don't steal those goods but actually pay for them over a counter or at a supermarket, then they ain't free. Cos the sellers of those goods are paying ITV a mint to advertise those products, and the money to pay for those adverts is paid for by you, me and every one else who ever does any shoping.

Lol.....I'm so sorry. I will stop eating and driving my car then so I dont pay ITV anything.

Nothing worse than finding a gem of a film you havnt seen before, your on the edge of your seat and the adverts come on ....

Or even worse your watching a classic action film and they cut all the "gore" scenes from it which itv and C4 do all the time ...

Thats why I record the movie first and flick through all the adverts....quite painless really!

Gae
 
Thats why I record the movie first and flick through all the adverts....quite painless really!
Good heavens! One US Network Executive has, apparently, gone on record as calling people with PVRs and who skip the adverts "thieves!!"
 
Whilst I'm pleased this thread is generating interest, it seems to have veered wildly off the topic which was that Grade is open to negotiations with Sky.

I'm sure these won't be painless and will probably be drawn out affairs but it's encouraging that it's being publicly spoken about before ITV HD has even got off the ground.
 
Personally though, I do like the "retro" stuff they show across the channels like "Space 1999""The Saint" "Hammer House of Horror" "UFO" etc ..pure nostalgia I know...but guilty as charged! :D

Ha, ha, so it's not just me then..... :smashin:

Those apart, I can't stand the dross they show on ITV 1, save for TV Burp, so makes no odds to me whether I can view ITV HD or not. I certainly wouldn't pay to watch it - ie buy a Freesat box.

It's ok banging on about Champions League games in HD on ITV, but until you've seen the broadcast quality I'd reserve judgement. As we all know only too well, there's good HD and there's poor HD. With ITV's track record for showing footie in ND (NO Definition), I wouldn't get too excited.
 
Whilst I'm pleased this thread is generating interest, it seems to have veered wildly off the topic which was that Grade is open to negotiations with Sky.

I'm sure these won't be painless and will probably be drawn out affairs but it's encouraging that it's being publicly spoken about before ITV HD has even got off the ground.

I wonder who is the better negotiator, Michael Grade or Rupert Murdoch?

Surely there's only one scientifically tried and tested way to find out............


F - I - G - H - T ......!!!

harryhill_big.jpg
 
It's ok banging on about Champions League games in HD on ITV, but until you've seen the broadcast quality I'd reserve judgement. As we all know only too well, there's good HD and there's poor HD. With ITV's track record for showing footie in ND (NO Definition), I wouldn't get too excited.

Goodoldbakes, I'm currently watching the ITV HD test stream on my Projector and if I can watch/schedule/timeshift Champion's League games and movies with the same quality, personally, I'll be pretty pleased!! :thumbsup:

What I like about the ITV HD stream is that they seem to have balanced a reasonable HD quality with bitrate size. The stream is encoded around 10.8 Mb, which is a lot lower than BBC HD etc but it still looks really nice and it doesnt take up too much space on the hard drive...about 5Gb per hour transmission I estimate.

Whichever way you look at it, the quality of ITV HD is a HUGE improvement on ITV SD. :D

Gae
 
Yeh i second that. ITV SD is appalling. The rugby world cup being case in point.

Murdoch and sky are the leaders in HD content, it will be interesting to see if itv and the champions league et al is a big enough draw for sky to need itv more than itv needing sky. I think the final emergence of decent competition for sky is putting them in a precarious position. Probably with setanta getting some of the footie, maybe sky may want itv more than they lead on.
If your a sky customer its good news i reckon on two fronts. Firstly if they do a deal with itv so they can get their sport and maybe bbc will show the f1 in hd which sky already broadcast, sky is the best option for sport if your happy to pay the premium (i am). Secondly, with the market opening up to viable alternatives maybe sky subsriptions might come down (though won't be holding my breath on that one).
 
Assuming you have a Sky Sports package that you pay X amount of money a month for that is. Sky customers always seem to conveniently forget that they actually have to pay (quite a lot of money too) for this service! :rolleyes:

Personally, I'm quite happy that these will be offered as part of the TV Licence fee and with no extra charge.
Gae

i agree,
i have always believed that football in particular should be made available to the FTA channels only, since it is the national sport of Britain.
 
i agree,
i have always believed that football in particular should be made available to the FTA channels only, since it is the national sport of Britain.

It certainly is the national sport, but don't you think the TV money has an influence on how the Premiership has evolved to become the best league in the World? Not to mention why the World's top players are happy to be playing in it for their exorbitant wages. If football was only given to FTA channels where do you think the income for the EPL would come from to continue in its' current form?

ATB

Max
 
Freesat probably doesn't care since no PVRs are available (yet) but if ITV HD does find it's way to Sky via some red button feature will be able to record programmes or are we stuck with recording the SD version?
 
It certainly is the national sport, but don't you think the TV money has an influence on how the Premiership has evolved to become the best league in the World?

Aware going VERY OT here. But that is a very debatable comment.

Overpriced / diving and feigning injury common place / only 3 teams can win it (we used to laugh at the SPL for this reason) / not supporting the development of english players and managers at the highest level etc.

The TV money has had a massive impact on English football - the merit of impact is a matter of opinion.
 
A little more on topic:)


I don't want SKY to pay a penny for including a FTA channel on the EPG let alone getting it's broadcast parameters changed to enable it to be added to SKY HD boxes.

I'm sorry but if you call your channel FTA then it should be free to anyone on any receiver if it meets the DVB spec, thankfully we don't have the situation like the US where people can be denied national network broadcasters via satellite or cable due to economic conflicts between the parties, well we didn't :(
 
Goodoldbakes, I'm currently watching the ITV HD test stream on my Projector and if I can watch/schedule/timeshift Champion's League games and movies with the same quality, personally, I'll be pretty pleased!! :thumbsup:

Just out of curiosity Gae, what kit are you using to view that? I'm thinking about getting a TechnoTrend S2-3600 or 3650 to hook up to my PC but I'm a bit of a novice in this respect.
 
Aware going VERY OT here. But that is a very debatable comment.

Overpriced / diving and feigning injury common place / only 3 teams can win it (we used to laugh at the SPL for this reason) / not supporting the development of english players and managers at the highest level etc.

The TV money has had a massive impact on English football - the merit of impact is a matter of opinion.

Sorry, still OT but want to respond. :)

I can't disagree with that, but speaking as a football fan, it's great to be able to watch world class players in action week in, week out, who wouldn't be here if it weren't for the impact of the money. I don't think I could argue against the view that the influx of foreign players has affected our national team. Many of our players can't make their own clubs' first team!

ATB

Max
 
A little more on topic:)
I'm sorry but if you call your channel FTA then it should be free to anyone on any receiver if it meets the DVB spec, thankfully we don't have the situation like the US where people can be denied national network broadcasters via satellite or cable due to economic conflicts between the parties, well we didn't(
What are you referring to that people in the US can be denied national network broadcasters? In fact by law, cable is required to broadcast all local stations (which include the national networks) with no exchange of money. SAT cannot garantee local broadcasts of the national networks due to the amount of local stations so instead does a regional broadcast of the national networks (ex. Houston, TX receives Dallas stations).
 

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