ITV Digital promo (2002)
Six minutes of reasons to subscribe to ITV Digital, but not a single mention that the service was destined to go belly-up within months. In fairness, they seemed to be offering truly à la carte packages unlike their rivals, and they had a decent amount of football on offer, but dirty tricks by Sky (first giving away their own set top boxes for free, refusing to carry the ITV Sport channel, and then cracking ITV's encryption and leaking their findings to known pirates, if the rumours are to be believed) coupled with financial incompetence on their own part meant the writing was on the wall.
I actually think this recording may come from March 2002, the very month they finally entered administration, and it's morbidly fascinating to see exactly what they were pushing in their vain attempts to woo potential customers. Film fan? No problem - Carlton Cinema has got you covered. And just in case you're not paying enough, there's always ITV Select, our pay-per-view offering. And who wants a computer? Obviously, surfing the web and sending e-mails on your living room TV via ITV Active is the future.
Not even Johnny Vegas and Monkey could save them.
Many thanks to @David315842 for sending me this tape.
(If you're a copyright holder and have any objections, please feel free to contact me. Alternatively, I haven't monetised the video, so you're welcome to do so, and that way everybody wins.)
Пікірлер: 33
In case anyone forgot, Johnny Vegas' character with Monkey was called 'Al'. Sorry I just felt like pointing that out. :D
In the same year, Paramount Comedy Channel had replaced its 1999 ident package which was the 'Sparkling Glitter-era' with the '3D Cube-era' ident package from 2002-2005 and the word 'Channel' was removed from the name and became 'Paramount Comedy'.
The design they use looks very similar to the 2021 BBC look.
Very surprising how late this ended up being made. If March is anything to go by, it must've felt like ITV Digital was business as usual but the amount of money they tried spending to compete with Sky, even going as far as to acquire a ton of lower-league football rights, it was no competition. I guess those talks with Sky to allow customers to watch the ITV Sport Channel fell through because they knew they had nothing to show for it.
@VideotapeFTW
3 ай бұрын
I _think_ it was common knowledge at this point the ITV Digital was in serious difficulties, but not necessarily that it was about to enter administration. With hindsight, it feels a bit like selling tickets on the Titanic for the return journey after it's hit the iceberg.
I do believe that this was their last final major promo before the Football Association and the Premier League destroyed this service. :D It was the fact that ITV put their eggs into one football basket that ultimately cost them the service as they couldn't manage to pay the high fees that were being demanded of them to air all their matches. Which seems far less sinister than corporate sabotage, but there you go. Likely from around Feb-March 02. Thanks again for uploading this. :)
@VideotapeFTW
3 ай бұрын
True, but there were definitely dirty tricks afoot. For some reason Sky never saw cable as direct opposition, but other broadcasters were and they'd stop at nothing to put them out of business. Not that ITV Digital didn't deserve anything else after their own mismanagement. Either way, thank _you_ for the tape, as always!
@David315842
3 ай бұрын
@@VideotapeFTW They probably would have come close to losing everything if that knowledge became public and Rupert Murdoch would have been held in even more infamy. You're welcome. :)
0:30 - That Simpsons clip was from the Series 3 episode 'Flaming Moe's' which I have it on a DVD set. This was ITV Digital's last ditched attempt of a barker channel promo to attract more subscribers of this DTT service, they signed a deal with the Premier League on a £315 million deal, but Carlton and Granada, the same ones that homogenised ITV couldn't afford it all, so their football deal ultimately murdered off ITV Digital
@VideotapeFTW
3 ай бұрын
Yeah, they gambled everything on the football and lost. ITV aren't the only ones who have done that, but they were by far the highest profile.
@David315842
3 ай бұрын
@@VideotapeFTW Told you that football killed ITV Digital, LOL. :D
@CSSTPMedia
3 ай бұрын
@@David315842 Charles Allen and Michael P. Green should be ashamed of themselves.
@VideotapeFTW
3 ай бұрын
@@David315842 That's what I meant by "financial incompetence on their own part" in the description! :-) But Sky refusing to carry the ITV Sport channel was a dirty tactic that also played a major part.
@David315842
3 ай бұрын
@@VideotapeFTW It may have been dirty, but Rupert Murdoch can decide what his company can and can't broadcast. It might be ethically unsound, but it wasn't illegal. Sometimes companies do screw each other over as it seems to be the case here.
man and motors is now itv4 and g plus is now itv3
@jamesmitchell8922
3 ай бұрын
M and M continued till 2010 when ITV4 began in 2005
@CSSTPMedia
3 ай бұрын
@@jamesmitchell8922 Michael Grade tried to merge Men & Motors to ITV4 but it failed, so it took until 2010 to eventually close down M&M in favour of ITV1 gaining an HD feed. Most of its programming was transferred to both ITV3 and ITV4.
monkey and Johnny Vegas end up adverted pg tips
@CSSTPMedia
3 ай бұрын
Which they did from 2007 to 2015.
This must be dated February 2002
@VideotapeFTW
3 ай бұрын
Going by what else was around it on the same tape, it may even be the first week of March.
The UK Gold bit is cut
@VideotapeFTW
3 ай бұрын
This is exactly how it was on the tape - I wonder why it was changed.
@tolagemeda8717
3 ай бұрын
@@David315842 From what I remember, the version of Sky One on OnDigital/ITV Digital was an alternative version as they didn't have the digital terrestrial rights to certain programmes (besides the ones shown on the promo at the beginning) so it doesn't surprise me that the same applied with the BBC and UK Gold
@jamesmitchell8922
3 ай бұрын
@David315842 I see but ITV Digital knew what was about to come.
@jamesmitchell8922
3 ай бұрын
@@David315842 Sadly, ITV Digital went bust
@VideotapeFTW
3 ай бұрын
@@David315842 Was Rock Profile a BBC programme at this point? Or was it independently made?