ITV to go to pay to view on Freeserve

Farway

Spotted this on Mail web site

"New ITV chairman Archie Norman is expected to charge millions of viewers to watch all but the broadcaster's main channel.....likely to introduce pay-TV for digital channels ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4,"

Would anyone really pay to watch the tosh on ITV2,3 & 4?

Full article here
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=494639&in_page_id=2

Inactive

:rotfl: Nobody in their right mind would actually pay to watch that tosh.

fedupwiththeworry

No way, can you imagine having to pay to watch the amateurish spin offs to I'm a celeb & X Factor ?

ghanagirl

Had to check the date to see if it was april fools day.

Agree with all the above.
Have you tried watching Minder or the Sweeney with the sex and fighting edited out, they edit these bits out to make more room for adverts.

Pokerlad

I think it more likely means they will try make Sky, Virgin etc to pay wholesale to carry the channels. In turn they would then include it in one of their subscription packages. Ultimately the end user will pay higher costs but if its bundled in say the Sky Entertainment pack it's not easy to say I just dont want ITV2 etc.

SailorSam

I only bought my Freesat a few weeks ago, i hope this isn't true.

Moneymaker

I don't see what this has to do with Freeserve (which no longer exists).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeserve

Inactive

Moneymaker wrote: »

I don't see what this has to do with Freeserve (which no longer exists).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeserve

Well spotted ..

Farway

Moneymaker wrote: »

I don't see what this has to do with Freeserve (which no longer exists).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeserve

Oh bum, meant Freeview of course, my sincere apologies to all

thor

This is only going to reduce their viewer figures to virtually zero which will drive more and more advertisers away. I wonder which overpaid Einstein came up with that idea. They have just not thought it through have they.
May I suggest they move Corrie, Emmerdale Farm and the Bill over to ITV2 exclusively and then think about charging for them. This way, they may get more subscribers and I won't have to put up all that boring housewife aimed crap any longer. It's a win-win situation as far as I am concerned. ok it may leave about 12 hours of space per day that would need filling on ITV1 but I am sure they could some boxing in as well as putting on a few more football matches(We only get about one match a week)

brewerdave

Ain't going to happen - the (very) small audience for these channels is almost exclusively via Freeview - who has a card slot on a freeview box/TV set nowadays? Only those with old ONdigital boxes (which won't work after the switch over) or saddos who are subscribing to Top Up tv.
Its included in Sky packages but I can't see Murdoch paying more to carry the channels!