ITV keeps quiet on BSkyB offer
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.ITV'S REFUSAL to distribute its signals over BSkyB's satellite network looked set to continue last night after the satellite broadcaster offered guarantees about digital take-up backed by compensation payments if targets weren't met.
In a letter sent to the ITV network centre two months ago, BSkyB urged the commercial broadcaster to add its channels to the digital satellite platform and offered to guarantee a take-up of 2.5 million homes by the end of 2001. BSkyB fleshed out the guarantee by proposing to compensate the ITV network with a payment of pounds 16 for every household by which it fell short of the 2.5 million threshold.
To date ITV has yet to respond to BSkyB's proposal. The network wasn't able to comment last night. As Britain's most-watched television channel, ITV has remained aloof from BSkyB's satellite network though the BBC and Channels 4 and 5 are distributed over Sky Digital.
Analysts have assumed ITV will eventually be available over digital satellite as it is available over analogue and digital cable platforms. Indeed, ITV receives a rebate of part of its advertising revenue levy to the government for every household it broadcasts to in digital.
So far, ITV's digital distribution has been limited to the less than 500,000 households that signed up to ONdigital. ONdigital is jointly owned by Granada and Carlton who are thought to remain keen to keep the network off Sky Digital for the time being.
Despite the recent rebound in ITV viewer share to 40 per cent, its share in Sky digital households, where viewers must switch out of the system, is only 31 per cent.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments