I lost hundreds of pounds personally that i had paid up front for ITV Digital content, including the box. I got back about £10 from the creditors around 3 years later.....thanks!
I LOST HUNDREDS OF POUNDS PERSONALLY THAT I HAD PAID UP FRONT FOR ITV DIGITAL CONTENT INCLUDING THE BOX. I GOT ABOUT £10 FROM THE CREDITORS AROUND 3 YEARS LATER..... THANKS
ITV Digital closed because they couldn't pay the football league the multi million pound deal and also because people sold counterfeit subscription cards which affected them. Freeview was created almost 20 years ago by the BBC, ITV and Crown Castle, replacing ITV Digital with completely free-to-air services. 2 years later pay TV returned to DTT with the launch of Top Up TV, until that went bust in 2013, when I was 5 years old. BT's Youview service adds pay TV services to your Freeview EPG using IPTV signals.
I remember May 1st 2002 for a couple of other personal reasons, but I'd forgotten that ITV Digital even existed... that and the older "On Digital" which was dead before then. You then had the choice of Sky, or Telewest/NTL depending on where you lived.
Itv Digital went for a number of reasons There was a poor channel selection compared to Sky, There were frequent reception issues because the signals they used were so weak that often the channel would just lock up or not come on at all those were often according to customer reports, They spent way too much on B-List football teams Who would watch B-List football teams that nobody cares about when they could watch the Higher grade ones on Sky. The games would be viewed as less than 1000 people, and there were piracy issues.
I wonder, do those old ITV Digital boxes work now? Of course, the size of the screen won't fit, but I haven't seen one person who still owns a ITV Digital box since 2003!
+Allanbuzzy The ONdigital/ITV Digital boxes were designed for 16:9 operation, so the screen size is irrelevant. Nevertheless, they don't work any more as a rule because Freeview uses a different digital broadcast standard to ITV Digital (grossly simplifying, ITV's system crammed more channels but reached less far from the transmitter; Freeview's system allows fewer channels but reaches further).
ITV digital boxes worked with Freeview until digital switchover, when freeview switched to 8K modulation, which the boxes are not capable of decoding. They are now useless.
@@badcatalex I realize this is an extremely dead comment thread I'm digging up here, but there might be something you could do with one if you could get your hands on one. Since it's still based on terrestrial broadcasting and the network of transmitters for it is still in use (just as the Freeview service now), theoretically you might be able to turn it into a digital converter box to revive some old analog set. Can't say I know for sure though, I'm also in the US so I haven't ever gotten my hands on one of those boxes to find out exactly what's in it.
@@TheGreatK0rnholio I didn't even see this reply omg Only issue is that UK Freeview nowadays uses a different frequency... but the firmware I think can be replaced...
@@badcatalex Yes. Looking through some other recordings from the service before it shut down, I was able to confirm that firmware updates were done OTA. Provided that the hardware is capable of doing what a new firmware version might tell it to do, it would be possible to get it to at least attempt to receive the modern Freeview signal. If the protocol has changed, but only slightly...maybe a few tricks with the smart card system would make a difference? Here's where I got a little bit of info about the updates from, you can find the details here and this link should go right to the useful bit. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OFLYFwlQx4g.html
Music - "Dizzy Fingers" by Jonathan & Darlene Edwards, legendary spoof comedy act, actually pianist Paul Weston & his wife, singer Jo Stafford. From the album "The Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards", but google the title & take a good look at the cover :-D
@@moramento22 Excatly, ITV Digital Boxes became redundant during the digital switchover as the ITV/On-Digital ran directly off or upgraded Analogue frequencies.
I don't remember this to be honest (I was 10 when it closed in 2002), but I do remember BBC choice, late 90s maybe? I can remember Dad buying one of the first Freeview boxes for £100 in 2003 I think, the box was huge, Men and Motors was our favourite channel as you got to watch The Sweeney, Minder, The Professionals!
Music behind the first spot...Dizzy Fingers by 'Jonathan Edwards' (actually pianist Paul Weston). Hilarious recordings by him & wife 'Darlene Edwards' (singer Jo Stafford). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N6NVVZTf_-Q.html
I subscribe to On/itvdigital before collapse of itv digital, was so pissed off as i cancel my analogue Sky subscripition three years eariler, the first digital terrestrial subscription As i was only aloud to have Ondigital as Sky ruling aloud to have one Sky receiver and dish per household, stupid really, But Hey Ho that life.
+Transdiffusion Broadcasting System But i was living at Home with family at the time, my mum and dad, my dad subscribe to Sky and at the time the EU Law state i was only aloud one subscripition Sky Box per household, Don't know why, but i was tied to Ondigital and itvdigital with small various of channels to choose from including Sky One etc through an tv aerial, i got so peed off when my monthly subscripition service went bust, that my box no longer work, i had to go back to analogue tv until i moved into my own property when i subscribe to Virgin and i tell you it now cost too expensive for someone with disabillty on benefits, that since freeview tv took over i'm now happy with my freeview tv service,
+Scott Peacock planning laws are UK laws, not EU ones. The EU has better things to do than pointlessly restrict the number of satellite dishes someone can have.
+Rambling Man well whatever I wasn't aloud Sky Digital in my bedroom, so I was stuck with ondigital and itvdigital, you can contact Sky for reasons why, that what I was told by my family.
+Scott Peacock Sorry to be the one to break this to you, but your family lied to you. There was nothing stopping you having Sky Digital in your bedroom, either via Sky Multiroom or a separate subscription. You can even run two boxes off the same dish very easily, solving the two-dishes problem. Don't know *why* your family lied to you to stop you having Sky in your bedroom, but lie they did.
A bad business plan. The idea was they would offer a smaller version of Sky for a smaller price. They believed the people who hadn't signed up for Sky didn't do so because Sky had too many channels, too many options and was too expensive. But the price wasn't all that much smaller; Sky's new digital service piled on *hundreds* of channels to ITV Digital's dozen or so; ITV Digital had a bewildering array of price levels depending on movies, sports, other premium channels and how many basic channels you could get from the underwhelmingly powered main transmitters - if any at all. Add to that the confused marketing, the delay in getting to air, the burning through of shareholders' money like it was cigarette papers and a "churn" rate of over 25% (that is, a quarter of subscribers stopped subscribing to some element or all of their package every month, often returning the boxes to the retailer) and you've got BSB II: The Revenge.
Transdiffusion Broadcasting System Some good information there. I had On Digital in late 2000 and it was frankly the worst service I have had, constant picture break up across all channels, something they failed to tell me about on signing up. They even gave me a half price aerial upgrade, which made no difference, in the end they had to let me out of my contract and I took Sky, The problem was, On Digitals signal coverage was limited, but they let anyone sign up. I only found out in later years that for the customers that struggled to get a stable picture, On Digital still coned them out of money. I'm my case, making me take an aerial upgrade I didn't need, they New it wouldn't make any difference, Terrible company
+Transdiffusion Broadcasting System more like Rupert Murdoch and his House of Ill Compute causing industrial espionage. Panorama did a program on it a few years ago.
there was also the whole Football League issue where ITV Digital bought the rights to the English league (sans the Premier League - but still a fair deal) - in the end they couldn't pay league the full amount which is what tipped them over the edge in the end.
Piracy was also a huge issue; OnDigital had a weak version of the SECA encryption system which was indeed easy to crack. And the ITC barring Sky from the OnDigital consortium foreshadowed the troubles faced by On/ITV Digital. Even worse, they were forced to pay £60million for the right to carry their channels. Had ITV Digital been successful, I dare say that Pay TV penetration would have been higher in the UK.
MondySpartan ITA is Independent Television Authority, which operated between 1955 and 1972, it was superseded by Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) between 1973 and 1985 then by Independent Television Commission 1986 to 1994, then Oftel.
