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The Collapse of ITV Digital has left Nearly a Million Subscribers

By: wushan

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The collapse of ITV Digital has left nearly a million subscribers with a much-reduced television service, more than a thousand employees facing an uncertain future, and several dozen football clubs in difficulty. If the negotiations of the past few weeks had been handled differently, if the strength of the digital terrestrial signal had been increased more rapidly, and if the terms for bought-in services could have been changed, then perhaps the story might have had a happier ending. Sadly, it didn't; and the question now must be one of where digital television as a whole goes, and what role if any the Government has to play.

Government, after all, is only there to set parameters, not to intervene in a commercial marketplace; and it is commercial misjudgments that have been primarily responsible for the current situation. Hut Government does have a role in securing the long-term public interest — which must surely be to have a wide choice of good-quality television channels and programmers available to the greatest number of viewers. It can't and shouldn't dictate what that choice should be, or who provides it, but it ought to be engaged in making sure .that a choice does in fact exist.

One of the mistakes on digital (rebranded ITV Digital last year) made at the outset was to try to compete head- to- head with satellite for the same subscribers. The best option for digital terrestrial is to aim for a completely different segment of the market. There is a crucial step that can be taken, and that is to speed up as urgently as possible the strengthening of the terrestrial signal for digital, so that it can reach 80 per cent of the population rather than just over 50 per cent. The slowness of this process has been one of the most important reasons for the current difficulties.

Digital, in all its various forms, does still represent the long-term future of television. It provides more channels and programmers, better picture and sound quality, and the advantages of interactivity. Just as the move was made from 405 lines to 625, and from black and white to color, so the move to digital will over time bring better choice and quality to viewers. It's worth reminding ourselves that already more than 40 per cent of households have signed up for digital television, a faster rate of growth than has occurred for video recorders, internet use, or mobile phones.

The demise of ITV Digital does of course make the broad timetable that had been in place, aiming for an overall switchover from analogue to digital by 2010, more difficult. It may be that the timing will need to be revised in due course. But the aim of securing the benefits of digital for the whole population in the medium term should not be abandoned simply because of this current setback. A number of steps can and should be taken, to try to move things forward. A determination by everyone involved, in industry and Government alike, that it is the interests of the public — not of the providers — that must come first. Something can yet be made out of this disappointment.

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