113-579: ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc , owners of multiple licences of the ITV network. Starting as ONdigital in 1998, the service was rebranded as ITV Digital in July 2001. Low audience figures, piracy issues and an ultimately unaffordable multi-million pound deal with
226-499: A joint venture , and applied to operate three digital terrestrial television (DTT) licences. They faced competition from a rival, Digital Television Network (DTN), a company created by cable operator CableTel (later known as NTL ). On 25 June 1997, BDB won the auction and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) awarded the sole broadcast licence for DTT to the consortium. Then on 20 December 1997,
339-535: A certain deadline. The ONdigital pay-per-view channels were encrypted using a system – SECA MediaGuard – which had subsequently been cracked by hackers working for NDS Group, the makers of the VideoGuard system that Sky Digital used. ONdigital did not update this system, therefore it was possible to produce and sell counterfeit subscription cards which would give access to all the channels. About 100,000 pirate cards were in circulation by 2002, and these played
452-410: A complex pricing structure with many options; a poor-quality subscriber management system (adapted from Canal+ ); a paper magazine TV guide whereas BSkyB had an electronic programme guide (EPG); insufficient technical customer services; and much signal piracy . While there was a limited return path provided via an in-built 2400 baud modem , there was no requirement, as there was with BSkyB, to connect
565-456: A digital TV box to engage the audience to switch to digital television viewing while watching TV5 and One Sports and later RPTV . Singapore adopted the DVB-T2 standard in 2012, with monopoly Free-to-air broadcaster Mediacorp offering all seven of its services via DTT in 2013. Mediacorp ended analogue television service shortly after midnight on 2 January 2019. Sri Lanka has chosen
678-448: A discount on their broadcasting licence payments based on the number of homes they had converted to digital television. It was also likely done to avoid further negativity towards the two companies. During the time under administration, Carlton and Granada were in talks regarding a merger, which was eventually cleared in 2004. Following the proposed Football League merger, with the lucrative finances it proposed, ITV Digital's collapse had
791-494: A head start over the ONdigital service. ONdigital's subscription pricing had been set to compare with the older Sky analogue service of 20 channels. In 1999, digital cable services were launched by NTL , Telewest and Cable & Wireless . In February 1999, ITV secured the rights for UEFA Champions League football matches for four years, which would partly be broadcast through ONdigital. Two sports channels were added to
904-531: A highlight film, actor, or property being carried by that network throughout a certain month; for instance, a month filled with films starring Tom Hanks saw Sky Cinema Greats become Sky Tom Hanks for that period of time. On 22 June 2020, Sky added a content warning to several older films stating that they "have outdated attitudes, language, and cultural depictions which may cause offence today". On 30 June 2020, several of Sky Cinema's standard definition channels were fully discontinued. This move also coincided with
1017-659: A large effect on many football clubs. Bradford City F.C. was one of the affected, and its debt forced it into administration in May 2002, followed by Leicester City in October . Barnsley F.C. also entered administration in October 2002, despite the club making a profit for the twelve years prior to the collapse of ITV Digital. Barnsley had budgeted on the basis that the money from the ITV Digital deal would be received, leaving
1130-410: A multi-year film output deal between Sky and The Walt Disney Company . This marks the first time that Disney has been involved in a co-branded linear film channel anywhere in the world, included new Disney films are available on Sky Movies Disney around six months after they have ended their cinema run. To facilitate the channel, Sky Movies Classics has ceased broadcasting, when Sky Movies Modern Greats
1243-495: A new official mascot, Chidejika , to replace Tsuyoshi Kusanagi after he was arrested on suspicion of public indecency. On 3 September 2009, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced the procurement by tender of 5,000-8,000 sets of "simplified DTT tuners " with remote control for the citywide test transition from analogue to digital in Suzu, Ishikawa . The sets should be delivered by end November 2009. The program
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#17327726663711356-521: A new service level agreement providing The Second Authority with a high level of local services to keep its currently operating DTV transmission equipment running 24/7, 365 days a year. The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and DPA (The Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting-Japan) jointly set the specification and announced a guideline for "simplified DTT tuners " with price under 5,000 Japanese yen on 25 December 2007. MIAC officially solicited manufacturers to put it on
1469-462: A reduction from £2 million per season to £700,000 in broadcasting revenue for First Division clubs. In total, fourteen Football League clubs were placed in administration within four years of the collapse of ITV Digital, compared to four in the four years before. On 31 March 2002, French cable company Canal+ accused Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation in the United States of extracting
1582-563: A request by Labour MP Tom Watson . ITV Digital ran an advertising campaign involving the comedian Johnny Vegas as Al and a knitted monkey simply called Monkey , voiced by Ben Miller . A knitted replica of Monkey could be obtained by signing up to ITV Digital. Because the monkey could not be obtained without signing up to the service, a market for second-hand monkeys developed. At one time, original ITV Digital Monkeys were fetching several hundred pounds on eBay , and knitting patterns delivered by email were sold for several pounds. The campaign
1695-557: A reservation basis from late April, appearing in retail store in mid-May 2008. On 8 May 2008, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that 43.7% of homes had DTT ( ISDB-T ) capable TVs and/or tuners with DVD recorder by end of March 2008. It had been 27.8% one year before, and the ministry was expecting 100% penetration by April 2011. On 27 April 2009, National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB)
1808-425: A role in the demise of the broadcaster that year. In April 2001 it was said that ONdigital would be 'relaunched' to bring it closer to the ITV network and to better compete with Sky. On 11 July 2001 Carlton and Granada rebranded ONdigital as ITV Digital . Other services were also rebranded, such as ONnet to ITV Active. A rebranding campaign was launched, with customers being sent ITV Digital stickers to place over
1921-491: A selection of channels which formed some of the core content available via the service. These were: Digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television ( DTTV , DTT , or DTTB ) is a technology for terrestrial television , in which television stations broadcast television content in a digital format. Digital terrestrial television is a major technological advancement over analog television , and has largely replaced analog television broadcasting, which
2034-408: A subscription package featuring channels such as Sky One , Cartoon Network , E4 , UKTV channels and many developed in-house by Carlton and Granada such as Carlton World ; premium channels including Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, Sky Premier and Sky MovieMax ; and the newly launched FilmFour . From the beginning, however, the company was quickly losing money. Supply problems with set-top boxes meant that
2147-407: A three-year service agreement for the global transmission system. Sixty-three high and medium-power transmitters from Thomson's GreenPower range have been ordered together with installation and commissioning services, in a deal that follows on from the company's earlier deployment of DVB-T multiplexes over thirty transmission and sixty-two repeater sites. Equipped with dualcast-ready digital exciters,
2260-547: A twelfth channel, Sky Cinema Animation, replaces Sky Cinema Premiere +1 on Sky and Virgin Media , and launched exclusively in high-definition on both platforms. Sky Cinema Premiere +1 continued to air on Virgin Media Ireland until its removal on 13 August 2020. The timeshift resumed broadcasting on 6 January 2021, replacing Sky Cinema Disney, which was shut down on 30 December 2020 (with the content moving into Disney+ ) and
2373-435: A £2.5 million shortfall in their accounts when the broadcaster collapsed. Clubs were forced to slash staff, and some players were forced to be sold as they were unable to pay them. Some clubs increased ticket prices for fans to offset the losses. The rights to show Football League matches were resold to Sky Sports for £95 million for the next four years compared to £315 million over three years from ITV Digital, leading to
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#17327726663712486-451: A £39.99 fee. Had this been successful, it could have threatened to undermine the fledgling Freeview service, since at the time most digital terrestrial receivers in households were ONdigital and ITV Digital legacy hardware. In January 2003, Carlton and Granada stepped in and paid £2.8m to the liquidators to allow the boxes to stay with their customers, because at the time the ITV companies received
2599-571: Is COFDM , with either 64 or 16-state Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). In general, 64QAM is capable of transmitting at a greater bit rate, but it is more susceptible to interference. 16 and 64QAM constellations can be combined in a single multiplex, providing a controllable degradation for more important program streams . This is called hierarchical modulation . DVB-T (and even more so DVB-T2) are tolerant of multipath distortion and are designed to work in single-frequency networks. Developments in video compression have resulted in improvements on
2712-417: Is Channel 49 of the religious group Iglesia ni Cristo . However, in October 2012, DZCE-TV (which occupies the channel) reopened the analog signal to relaunch as INC TV; therefore, channel 49 can only transmit digitally during off-air hours of the analog channel 49. This was followed by the state-owned television network PTV which conducted its test transmission on UHF Channel 48. On 11 February 2015,
2825-504: Is aiming to examine the transition problem at individuals' home in country wide such as senior and non-technical families. Based on this rehearsal plan, analog TV transmission was interrupted in Suzu and parts of Noto for 48 hours, between noon on 2010/01/22 and noon on 2010/01/24. On 4 September 2009, ÆON announced the low cost "simplified DTT tuners " with remote control for ISDB-T to sell at JUSCO from 19 September 2009. The tuner
2938-466: Is also possible that MCOT may be planning to switch to DVB-T2 some time in the future to replace DVB-T . The Switch-off Date has been planned for 2020. (Only for Channel 3 (Thailand) ) For now, five analogue channels has been off-air since 16 June 2018 ( Thai Public Broadcasting Service and Channel 7 (Thailand) ), 21 June ( Channel 5 (Thailand) ) and 16 July ( Channel 9 MCOT HD and NBT) Australia uses DVB-T . The transition to digital television and
3051-590: Is expected to receive up to 19 channels, seven of which fall under MCOT and the rest for private broadcasters such as BEC-TERO which owns its channels such as TV3 . Thus far, besides simulcasting Modernine TV and Television of Thailand , MCOT is test-airing MCOT 1, MCOT 2 and MCOT 3 exclusively on the digital TV platform, transmitted at UHF channel 44, modulated at 64QAM . MCOT was also expected to launch regional channels for each province and/or territory in Thailand, making it 80 MCOT television channels. BEC-TERO
3164-883: Is produced by Pixela Corporation , and met the retail price of under 5,000 Japanese yen , which is the target price to industry by DPA ( Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting ( dejitaru housou suishin kyōkai ) ). The tuner connects to an old fashioned TV though an RCA connector with SDTV quality and some other minimal functions. On 7 September 2009, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications appointed two manufacturers I-O Data and Melco among 12 bids for minimal functioning "simplified DTT tuners " with remote control for ISDB-T of free supply to Japanese Temporary Assistance for Needy Families . Tuner connects to old fashion TV though RCA connector with SDTV quality and some other minimal function. On 24 July 2010, at noon, analog TV transmission officially stopped in Suzu and parts of Noto (approximately 8,800 homes) as
3277-414: Is received either via a digital set-top box (STB), TV gateway , or more usually now, an integrated tuner in a television set , that operates on the signal received via a television antenna . These devices often now include digital video recorder (DVR) functionality. Due to frequency planning issues, an aerial capable of receiving different channel groups, like a wideband antenna, may be required if
3390-580: The ATSC standard with 8VSB modulation, which has similar characteristics to the vestigial sideband modulation used for analog television. This provides considerably more immunity to interference, but it is not immune to multipath distortion, and also does not provide for single-frequency network operation (which is in any case not a requirement in the United States). The modulation method used in DVB-T
3503-826: The Football League led to the broadcaster suffering large losses, and it entered administration in March 2002. Pay television services ceased permanently on 1 May of that year, but carriage of the remaining free-to-air channels such as BBC One and Channel 4 continued. In October, ITV Digital’s former terrestrial multiplexes were taken over by Crown Castle and the BBC to create the Freeview free-to-air service. On 31 January 1997, Carlton Television , Granada Television and satellite company British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) together created British Digital Broadcasting (BDB) as
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3616-401: The Football League to broadcast 88 live Nationwide League and Worthington Cup matches from the 2001–02 season. In 1999, Sky started to give away their digiboxes for free whilst the customer subscribed. This was a problem for ONdigital, as they had no choice but to sell prepaid set top boxes to win customers back from rival services. Even when they decided to sell prepaid set top boxes (under
3729-562: The "Dubbing 10" rules, and some manufacturers announced plans for create firmware downloads to allow users to update their existing recorders. On 3 April 2008, DPA announced that a total of 32.71 million of DTT ( ISDB-T ) TV sets capable of DTT reception (excepting 1seg receivers) had been installed in Japan as of the end of March 2008. On 8 April 2008, DPA also announced guidelines for manufacturers of DTT receiving, record and replay unit which operate with personal computers. These add-on units operate on USB or PCI BUS , and went on sale on
3842-721: The 70th anniversary of GMA Network released their newest product, GMA Affordabox , a digital TV box to engage the audience to switch to digital television viewing while watching GMA and GMA News TV . Before the launch of the said TV box, the network released two new sub-channels, the Heart of Asia Channel (launched in June 2020 featuring GMA's acquired Asian dramas and locally produced dramas) and Hallypop (which airs acquired programs from Jungo TV featuring Asian pop culture and international music events.) On 10 September 2021, TV5 Network, Inc. formally launched its newest product, Sulit TV ,
3955-565: The DVB-T system for digital television in July 1999. The first DVB-T transmission was started on 26 January 2003 in the four major metropolitan cities by Doordarshan . Currently the terrestrial transmission is available in both digital and analog formats. Four high-power DVB-T transmitters were set up in the top 4 cities, which were later upgraded to DVB-T2 + MPEG-4 and DVB-H standards. An additional 190 high-power and 400 low-power DVB-T2 transmitters have been approved for Tier I, II, and III cities of
4068-575: The GS Group. The service is called RealVU . It was done in partnership with Beximco . GS Group acts as a supplier and integrator of its in-house hardware and software solutions for the operator's functioning in accordance with the modern standards of digital television. RealVu provides more than 100 TV channels in SD and HD quality. The digital TV set-top boxes developed by GS Group offer such functions as PVR and time-shift, along with an EPG. India adopted
4181-466: The GreenPower range offers the ability to smoothly migrate from DVB-T to DVB-T2 and to easily offer additional HDTV content. Ranging from low- to high-power, the range covers all the power requirements of The Second Authority. Thomson will also deploy its user-friendly centralized Network Management System to control and monitor the overall transmission system from a single facility. The deal includes
4294-465: The ITC awarded three pay-TV digital multiplex licences to BDB. That same year, however, the ITC forced BSkyB out of the consortium on competition grounds; this effectively placed Sky in direct competition with the new service as Sky would also launch its digital satellite service in 1998, although Sky was still required to provide key channels such as Sky Movies and Sky Sports to BDB. With Sky as part of
4407-666: The ITV brand did not belong solely to Carlton and Granada. SMG and UTV initially refused to carry the advertising campaign for ITV Digital and did not allow the ITV Sport Channel space on their multiplex, thus it was not available at launch in most of Scotland and Northern Ireland. The case was resolved in Scotland and the Channel Islands and later still in Northern Ireland, allowing ITV Sport to launch in
4520-670: The Japanese-Brazilian standard ISDB-Tb . In 2005, the Ministry of Information announced its plan to digitalise nationwide free-to-air TV broadcasts led by MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT). Trial broadcasts were undertaken, involving one thousand households in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area from December 2000 until May 2001. According to the then-Deputy Minister of Information, the trial received "very positive" feedback, i.e. "more than 60 percent said
4633-536: The ONdigital logos on their remote controls and set top boxes. The software running on the receivers was not changed, however, and continued to display 'ON' on nearly every screen. However, iDTVs made after the rebrand removed the 'ON' prefix from their software. Option 7 on the main menu on iDTVs was also renamed from "ONdigital Updates" to "Subscription Information". The rebrand was not without controversy, as SMG plc (owner of Scottish Television and Grampian Television ), UTV and Channel Television pointed out that
ITV Digital - Misplaced Pages Continue
4746-463: The ONprepaid brand), they could not easily compete with Sky. ONdigital's growth slowed throughout 2000, and by the start of 2001 the number of subscribers was no longer increasing; meanwhile, its competitor Sky Digital oversaw a dramatic increase in subscribers, spearheaded by the launch of interactive services, such as Open... and Sky Gamestar , and the launch of rival cable digital services from
4859-501: The Sky Cinema brand adopting the 2020 Sky channel branding previously adopted by the entertainment channels following the launch of Sky Comedy . On 30 March 2022, the SD feeds of Sky Cinema Comedy, Sky Cinema Thriller and Sky Cinema Drama were similarly withdrawn. On 29 May 2024, the SD feeds of Sky Cinema Premiere, Sky Cinema Greats, Sky Cinema Family and Sky Cinema Action were removed from Sky. On 23 July 2020, Sky Cinema launched
4972-556: The Sky MovieMax channels became Sky Movies Max and the Sky Cinema channels became Sky Movies Cinema. Eventually in June 2003, Sky listened to demands for more widescreen films, the service was closed and the majority of films on the remaining channels were actually shown in widescreen. On 1 November 2003, the Sky Movies Premier and Sky Movies Max channels were all brought under one banner as simply Sky Movies 1 to 9. At
5085-537: The UserROM code from its MediaGuard encryption cards and leaking it onto the internet. Canal+ brought a lawsuit against News Corporation alleging that it, through its subsidiary NDS (which provides encryption technology for Sky and other TV services from Murdoch), had been working on breaking the MediaGuard smartcards used by Canal+, ITV Digital and other non-Murdoch-owned TV companies throughout Europe. The action
5198-574: The Virgin Media platform on 2 August 2010. Sky Movies Classics HD launched on 9 August 2010 was exclusively on Sky, and the channel was also added to Virgin Media on 4 October 2011. Smallworld Cable added the Sky Movies HD channels to their line-up in the first quarter of 2012, followed by Virgin Media Ireland on 16 August 2012. On 28 March 2013, Sky Movies Disney was launched that effectively replaces Disney Cinemagic , as part of
5311-402: The ability to broadcast more channels than analog, better quality images, and potentially lower operating costs for broadcasters. Different countries have adopted different digital broadcasting standards. Some of the major ones are: Digital terrestrial television is transmitted using radio frequencies through terrestrial space in the same way as the former analog television systems, with
5424-638: The analog terrestrial TV close down schedule on 24 July 2011 will be unchanged, with the exception being the close down having to be postponed by a maximum one year. Analog television shut down on 31 March 2012, in Iwate , Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, which were heavily damaged in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear accidents that followed it . Analog television stations are required to cease normal programming at noon and shut down their signals at midnight. Digital television in Malaysia
5537-607: The channel from Sky HD subscribers. Sky also announced that in October 2008, they would launch six new high-definition simulcast channels called Sky Movies Action/Thriller HD, Sky Movies Sci-Fi/Horror HD, Sky Movies Drama HD, Sky Movies Modern Greats HD, Sky Movies Family HD and Sky Movies Comedy HD. This means that almost all Sky Movies channels are broadcast in both standard- and high-definition except for Sky Movies Premiere +1, Sky Movies Classics and Sky Movies Indie which remained standard-definition only until Sky Movies Indie HD launched on 26 October 2009. Sky Movies were rebranded as
5650-461: The channel was only licensed to cable company NTL . Subscriptions for ONnet/ITV Active, its internet service, peaked at around 100,000 customers. ITV Digital had a 12% share of digital subscribers as of December 2001. ITV Digital and Granada cut jobs that month. By 2002, the company was thought to be losing up to £1 million per day. In February 2002, Carlton and Granada said that ITV Digital needed an urgent "fundamental restructuring". The biggest cost
5763-874: The channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland were rebranded from Sky Movies to Sky Cinema; on 22 September in Germany and Austria, the Sky Cinema brand (originally used for the flagship network) was extended to the German channels in the group formerly known as Sky Film ; the Italian Sky Cinema channels followed suit on 5 November by adopting the brand packages introduced in the United Kingdom and Ireland earlier Sky Cinema includes movie premieres from Universal Pictures , Sony Pictures , Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures alongside sky originals films. Launched at 6 pm on 5 February 1989, Sky Movies
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#17327726663715876-523: The channels were known as Sky Movies SD1 and SD2. These channels were renamed Sky Movies Screen 1 and Screen 2 in February 2008, and the HDTV channels were renamed Sky Movies Screen 1 HD and Screen 2 HD accordingly. On 20 March 2008, an additional high-definition film channel called Sky Movies Premiere HD, which is a simulcast version of the current Sky Movies Premiere channel, was added after many requests for
5989-540: The company faced was its three-year deal with the Football League, which had been deemed too expensive by critics when agreed, as it was inferior to the top-flight Premiership coverage from Sky Sports . It was reported on 21 March 2002 that ITV Digital had proposed paying only £50 million for the remaining two years of the Football League deal, a reduction of £129m. Chiefs from the League said that any reduction in
6102-413: The company missed Christmas sales and retailers had to wait several months for the customers to receive their boxes. Meanwhile, aggressive marketing by BSkyB for Sky Digital made the ONdigital offer look unattractive. The new digital satellite service provided a dish, digibox , installation and around 200 channels for £159, a lower price than ONdigital at £199. Sky had also launched earlier, meaning they had
6215-632: The consortium, British Digital Broadcasting would have paid discounted rates to carry Sky's television channels. Instead, with its positioning as a competitor, Sky charged the full market rates for the channels, at an extra cost of around £60million a year to BDB. On 28 July 1998, BDB announced the service would be called ONdigital, and claimed it would be the biggest television brand launch in history. The company would be based in Marco Polo House (since demolished) in Battersea, south London, which
6328-633: The country by 2017. The Indian telecom regulator, TRAI, had recommended the I&;B to allow private broadcast companies to use the DTT technology, in 2005. So far, the Indian I&;B ministry only permits private broadcast companies to use satellite, cable, and IPTV-based systems. The government's broadcasting organisation Doordarshan started the free TV service over DVB-T2 to mobile phone users from 25 February onwards and extended it to cover 16 cities including
6441-422: The country on 6 June 2017 with an estimate of 4.2 million digital television decoders freely distributed to the country citizens, including recipients of the government aid of 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M). The government has planned for a full shutdown of analogue television broadcasting by September 2019 with a full introduction of digital television will be available to public by October. Langkawi become
6554-418: The customer at no charge for as long as they continued to subscribe to ONdigital, an offer that was matched by Sky. ONdigital's churn rate , a measure of the number of subscribers leaving the service, reached 28% during 2001. Additional problems for ONdigital were the choice of 64QAM broadcast mode, which when coupled with far weaker than expected broadcast power, meant that the signal was weak in many areas;
6667-536: The digital signal multiplexes lie outside the reception capabilities of the originally installed aerial. Indoor aerials are more likely to be affected by these issues. Afghanistan officially launched digital transmissions in Kabul using DVB-T2/MPEG-4 on Sunday, 31 August 2014. Test transmissions had commenced on 4 UHF channels at the start of June 2014. Transmitters were provided by GatesAir. Bangladesh had its first DTT service DVB-T2/MPEG-4 on 28 April 2016 launched by
6780-487: The early 1990s, Sky Movies carried several non-film premium content known as "special events" including World Wrestling Federation 's annual events such as WrestleMania , Royal Rumble , SummerSlam and Survivor Series , various music concerts and live boxing competitions such as the first event was Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas on 11 February 1990. This was because at this time all of Sky's other channels including Sky Sports , were shown free-to-air and during this period,
6893-484: The early hours of the next morning. In addition of these slots for 6.00 pm, 8.00 pm and 10.00 pm, Sky Movies had several different film genres were used every evening such as: At the same time, The Movie Channel started to begin its evening films at the later slots of 6.15 pm, 8.15 pm and 10.15 pm, also include showing classic and children's films (at around 4.00 pm) during the daytime hours between early morning and late afternoons were used. For three consecutive years in
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#17327726663717006-515: The end of 2012. Eventually, there were no further moves in this direction (updated in August 2023). On 20 March 2013, it was announced that Thomson Broadcast had won a major contract with The Second Authority for Television and Radio for the extension of its nationwide DVB-T/DVB-T2 network. The Second Authority's order for new infrastructure includes two new multiplexes on thirty sites including three single-frequency areas. This major deal incorporates
7119-475: The first Sky channel to scramble its signal, using a encryption system called VideoCrypt . Anyone attempting to view it without a decoder and smart card could only see a scrambled picture. On 2 November 1990, Sky Television merged with rival British Satellite Broadcasting , acquiring The Movie Channel . With the launch of the second SES Astra satellite ( 1B ) was added to the Sky package on 15 April 1991 and
7232-614: The first area of analogue television switch off that were executed on 21 July at 02:30 ( UTC+8 ). Further on 6 August, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Ministry released a complete list of transition date on the remaining areas with central and southern West Malaysia to be commenced on 19 August, northern West Malaysia on 2 September, eastern coast West Malaysia on 17 September and entire East Malaysia on 30 September. The switch over in West Malaysia
7345-622: The first film shown was 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . From the relaunch of the channel under BSkyB , this ident was made by Pacific Data Images and heavily based on NBC 's movie opening used from 1987 to 1993. Similarly, Sky Movies was made available to viewers on BSB's old satellite on 8 April earlier that year replaces its music channel, The Power Station . Also in the same year (6 May), Sky Movies and The Movie Channel started broadcasting for 24 hours per day – which previously they had been on air from early afternoon until
7458-774: The four metros from 5 April 2016. Israel started digital transmissions in MPEG-4 on Sunday, 2 August 2009, and analogue transmissions ended on 31 March 2011. Israel was the first nation in the Middle East and the first non-European nation to shut down its analogue TV distribution system. The new service which is operated by The Second Authority for Television and Radio in Israel currently offers 6 SD TV channels, 2 HD TV channels from IPBC - Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation ( Kan 11 and Makan 33) and 30 national and regional (private) radio services. According to government decisions,
7571-495: The government's ambition to switch off analogue terrestrial TV signals by 2010. Despite several interested parties, the administrators were unable to find a buyer for the company and effectively put it into liquidation on 26 April 2002. Most subscription channels stopped broadcasting on ITV Digital on 1 May 2002 at 7 am, with only free-to-air services continuing. The next day, ITV chief executive Stuart Prebble quit. In all, 1,500 jobs were lost by ITV Digital's collapse. ITV Digital
7684-415: The guaranteed income. On 1 August the league lost the case, with the judge ruling that it had "failed to extract sufficient written guarantees". The league then filed a negligence claim against its own lawyers for failing to press for a written guarantee at the time of the deal with ITV Digital. From this, in June 2006, it was awarded a paltry £4 in damages of the £150m it was seeking. The collapse put in doubt
7797-520: The initial application. Digital television transition began on 28 February 2017, with ZOE Broadcasting Network 's DZOZ-TV as the country's first station to permanently shut down analog terrestrial transmissions without any test simulcast with its digital signal, and is expected to be finished by 2023. On 25 May 2018, Solar Entertainment Corp began a new digital TV service called Easy TV where most of its channels are offered to consumers through Easy TV's proprietary set-top box. In October 2020, with
7910-531: The launch of Sky HD , the two channels were also available in a high-definition format. Sky Movies was overhauled on 4 April 2007, when the different channels became dedicated to different genres, but three of the HD channels have launched already before the other: Sky later made Sky Movies HD1 and HD2 available to subscribers without HDTV equipment through two channels simulcasting the same content in SDTV format,
8023-461: The launch of other digital services from the likes of NTL and Telewest . This bundle sold in high street shops and supermarkets at a price that included the set-top box (which was technically on loan) and the first year's subscription package. These prepaid boxes amounted to 50% of sales in December 1999. Thousands of these packages were also sold at well below retail price on auction sites such as
8136-409: The likes of NTL and Telewest ate into ONdigital's subscriber numbers. The ONdigital management team responded with a series of free set-top box promotions, initially at retailers such as Currys and Dixons , when ONdigital receiving equipment was purchased at the same time as a television set or similarly priced piece of equipment. These offers eventually became permanent, with the set-top box loaned to
8249-451: The major TV network ABS-CBN commercially launched the digital TV box called ABS-CBN TV Plus also known as Mahiwagang Blackbox . Seven years before the commercial launch, the network initially applied for a license from NTC on digital free TV. The digital TV box was given away as a prize for the loyal viewers and listeners of ABS-CBN channel 2, DZMM (AM radio station of ABS-CBN) and DZMM TeleRadyo (TV-radio cable channel of ABS-CBN) after
8362-604: The market by the end of March 2010 (end of fiscal year 2009). MIAC is estimating that 14 million, at maximum, traditional non-digital TV sets remain and need the "simplified DTT tuner" to be adapted even after the complete transition to DTT after July 2011; it is aiming to avoid the disposal of large numbers of useless TV sets without such a tuner at one time. On 20 December 2007, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association published rules for Digital Rights Management for DTT broadcasting under
8475-620: The name "Dubbing 10". Despite the name, consumers were allowed to use Blu-ray Disc and other recorders to " dub " or copy the video and audio of entire TV programs up to 9 times, with 1 final "move" permitted. Broadcasting with "Dubbing 10" was supposed to start at about 4:00 a.m. on 2 June 2008, but was postponed after lengthy talks with the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers . It finally started about 4:00 a.m. on 4 July 2008. The manufacturers of DVD and DTT recorders were to make units conforming to
8588-516: The non-Carlton and Granada regions, although it was never made available in the Channel Islands, where there was no DTT or cable, and it never appeared on Sky Digital. Later in 2001, ITV Sport Channel was announced. This would be a premium sport channel, and would broadcast English football games as per the company's deal with the Football League in 2000, as well as ATP tennis games and Champions League games previously covered by ONsport 1 and ONsport 2. The channel launched on 11 August of that year, and
8701-503: The operator of a hacking website, who claimed he was paid up to £60,000 per year by Ray Adams, NDS's head of security. This would mean that Murdoch used computer hacking to directly undermine rival ITV Digital. Lawyers for News Corporation claimed that these accusations of illegal activities against a rival business are "false and libellous". In June 2013 the Metropolitan Police decided to look into these allegations following
8814-441: The original discrete cosine transform (DCT) based H.262 MPEG-2 video coding format , which has been surpassed by H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and more recently H.265 HEVC . H.264 enables three high-definition television services to be coded into a 24 Mbit/s DVB-T European terrestrial transmission channel. DVB-T2 increases this channel capacity to typically 40 Mbit/s, allowing even more services. Digital terrestrial television
8927-589: The part of the various Sky channels on 1 January 2010. On 26 March 2010, some Sky Movies channels were renamed, the new Sky Movies Showcase that replaces Sky Movies Screen 1 were devoted to box sets, collections and seasons. Sky Movies also reshuffled its bouquet of ten channels to achieve greater "clarity" for subscribers. The changes included Sky Movies Action & Thriller becoming Sky Movies Action & Adventure, Sky Movies Drama becoming Sky Movies Drama & Romance and Sky Movies Screen 2 becoming Sky Movies Crime & Thriller. The Sky Movies HD channels launched on
9040-432: The payment could threaten the existence of many football clubs, which had budgeted for large incomes from the television contract. On 27 March 2002, ITV Digital was placed in administration as it was unable to pay the full amount due to the Football League. Later, as chances of its survival remained bleak, the Football League sued Carlton and Granada, claiming that the firms had breached their contract in failing to deliver
9153-589: The phaseout of analogue television was completed on 10 December 2013. Sky Cinema Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast ). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on demand content are available through these as well as via Now , EE TV and TalkTalk TV . In 2016, Sky rebranded its television film channel operations under one single branding on 8 July,
9266-664: The platform, Champions ON 28 and Champions ON 99 (later renamed ONsport 1 and ONsport 2 when it secured the rights to ATP tennis games), the latter of which timeshared with Carlton Cinema . Throughout 1999, channels including MTV and British Eurosport launched on the platform. The exclusive Carlton Kids and Carlton World channels closed in 2000 to make way for two Discovery channels. ONdigital reported in April 1999 that it had 110,000 subscribers, while Sky Digital had over 350,000 by that time. By March 2000, there were 673,000 ONdigital customers. The first interactive digital service
9379-406: The primary difference being the use of multiplex transmitters to allow reception of multiple services (TV, radio stations or data) on a single frequency (such as a UHF or VHF channel). The amount of data that can be transmitted (and therefore the number of channels) is directly affected by channel capacity and the modulation method of the transmission. North America and South Korea use
9492-417: The quality of the signal ranged from good to very good. Over 88 percent said the picture quality improved, while 70 percent said the sound quality was better." According to Information Minister, Sontaya Kunplome , MCOT is expected to fully complete its digitalization in 2012 as part of its three-year restructuring process. Each household, once equipped with the necessary equipment ( set-top box or iDTV set)
9605-494: The rebranded network would premiere "a new film each day", and that it would expand the service's on-demand library. Sky also announced plans to launch a 4K ultra-high-definition feed later in the year. 4K films became available on 13 August 2016 for Sky Q customers in a 2TB box with Sky Cinema and multi-screen packs, as well as 70 were available by the end of 2016. During this time, the Sky Cinema networks would have their electronic program guide positions rebranded to tie into
9718-478: The rehearsal plan that took place one year ahead of the nationwide shutdown, which is scheduled on 24 July 2011. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications shall watch what type of problem arise in transition to DTT which might apply to the nationwide shutdown. On 20 April 2011, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications confirmed, and made the resolution by the House of Councillors on 8 June 2011, that
9831-448: The same time, Sky Movies Cinema 1 and 2 became Sky Cinema 1 and 2. Sky Movies along with numerous other channels became available to watch via Sky Mobile TV in 2005, in partnership with Vodafone . From 30 January 2006, Sky Movies 9 and the new Sky Movies 10 started broadcasting from 5.00pm to 3.00am. They were PIN -protected, meaning that for the first time when films with a 15 certificate were able to be shown as early as 5.00pm. With
9944-572: The service instead opting for Front Row . Following the major rebrand once again on 10 September 1998, as Sky Movies Screen 1 became Sky MovieMax, Sky Movies Screen 2 became Sky Premier and Sky Movies Gold was renamed Sky Cinema. The launch of Sky Digital from the new Astra 28.2°E satellite position on 1 October 1998 was accompanied by a major expansion of channels. Sky Premier and Sky MovieMax both added three multiplex channels each (Sky Premier 2 to 4 and Sky MovieMax 2 to 4), Sky Cinema launched Sky Cinema 2, and additionally, Sky Premier Widescreen – at
10057-414: The service was often referred to as Sky Movies Plus (up until 31 August 1993 shortly before the launch of the new Multichannels package ). When Sky Sports became a pay channel on 1 September 1992, Sky Movies stopped showing non-movie related programming. On 1 October 1992, The Comedy Channel was replaced by Sky Movies Gold, a service dedicated to "classic movies" from 4.00pm to midnight every day and it
10170-463: The set-top box's modem to a phone line. With this combination of factors contributing to the service's lack of popularity, in 2001, executives at ONdigital management wrote a letter to the government, asking for emergency funding to finance the service in order to keep it alive due to a lack of customers and paying members. ONdigital began to sell prepaid set-top boxes (under the name ONprepaid) from November 1999 in order to win customers, especially at
10283-596: The specifications of the DTV set-top box for use within ASEAN, and also set up an ASEAN HD Centre to provide training on HDTV content to broadcasters in the region. Even though MCOT's trial was a success, the future of the digital terrestrial television transition has become uncertain, especially after the end of Somchai Wongsawat 's tenure as the prime minister and the beginning of successor Abhisit Vejjajiva 's reign in favor of his concept. In March 2011, MCOT announced that it
10396-415: The system will expand to include two additional multiplexes that will carry new channels and HD versions of the existing channels. There is a proposition by the Ministry of Finance to run a tender in order to hand over the maintenance of the system to a private company that, in return, will receive an extended license and will be able to offer pay TV channels. In this matter, nothing has been decided upon until
10509-457: The then-popular QXL . As the call to activate the viewing card did not require any bank details, many ONdigital boxes which were supposed to be on loan were at unverifiable addresses. This was later changed so a customer could not buy a box without ONdigital verifying their address. Many customers did not activate the viewing card at all, although where the viewer's address was known, ONdigital would write informing them that they must activate before
10622-545: The time was the only channel devoted to showing widescreen films were all launched exclusively on digital satellite. Also on the same year (15 November), Sky MovieMax and Sky Premier launched on ITV Digital terrestrial platform. On 1 October 1999, Sky MovieMax 5 was launched. From 1 July 2002, as the Sky Movies channels saw yet another rebranding exercise, the Sky Premier channels were renamed Sky Movies Premier,
10735-399: Was BSkyB's director of channels and services at the time) advocated Sky setting up a film funding and production unit (similar to BBC Film and Film4 Productions ). The result was Sky Pictures, which existed in order to investing both low-budget and mainstream British films. However, following a lack of success and her decision to leave Sky and set up her own production company called Shine ,
10848-676: Was added as a three-channel package, with the first film shown at 6.00pm on the new network was 1979's Rocky II . On 31 December of that year, Sky Movies and The Movie Channel stopped broadcasting via Thor satellite . From 1 February 1993, BSkyB introduced a new system of ratings for Sky Movies, The Movie Channel and Sky Movies Gold were used at various times replacing the British Board of Film Classification certificates which lasted over four years, and remained on air until 31 October 1997: On 1 October 1995, Sky Movies Gold starts sharing its transponder space with The Disney Channel (which
10961-447: Was also carried on cable by NTL . The service reached 1 million subscribers by January 2001, whereas Sky Digital had 5.7 million. Granada reported £69 million in losses in the first six months of 2001, leading some investors to urge it to close or sell ONdigital/ITV Digital. ITV Digital was unable to make a deal to put the ITV Sport Channel on Sky, which could have given the channel access to millions of Sky customers and generated income;
11074-478: Was an open standard that was used by all broadcasters on DTT. ONdigital was officially launched on 15 November 1998 amid a large public ceremony featuring celebrity Ulrika Jonsson and fireworks around the Crystal Palace transmitting station . Its competitor Sky Digital had already debuted on 1 October. The service launched with 12 primary channels, which included the new BBC Choice and ITV2 channels;
11187-480: Was awarded. On 26 March 2012, an investigation from BBC's Panorama found evidence that one of News Corporation's subsidiaries sabotaged ITV Digital. It found that NDS hacked ONdigital/ITV Digital smartcard data and leaked them through a pirate website under Murdoch's control – actions which enabled pirated cards to flood the market. The accusations arose from emails obtained by the BBC, and an interview with Lee Gibling,
11300-419: Was created by the advertising agency Mother . In August 2002, following ITV Digital's collapse, Vegas claimed that he was owed money for the advertisements. In early 2007, Monkey and Al reappeared in an advert for PG Tips tea, which at first included a reference to ITV Digital's downfall. The set-top boxes used for ITV Digital and ONdigital were: Carlton and Granada (later ITV Digital Channels Ltd ) created
11413-441: Was delayed for over six years) resulting in the service's broadcasting hours changed from 10.00 pm to 6.00 am. The two main channels were rebranded under a common brand on 1 November 1997, Sky Movies became Sky Movies Screen 1 and The Movie Channel became Sky Movies Screen 2, as well as Sky Box Office launches a four-channel near on-demand service on 1 December of that year, also carried by Cable & Wireless chooses not to use
11526-864: Was eventually placed into liquidation on 18 October, with debts of £1.25 billion. By 30 April 2002, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) had revoked ITV Digital's broadcasting licence and started looking for a buyer. A consortium made up of the BBC and Crown Castle submitted an application on 13 June, later joined by BSkyB, and were awarded the licence on 4 July. They launched the Freeview service on 30 October 2002, offering 30 free-to-air TV channels and 20 free-to-air radio channels including several interactive channels such as BBC Red Button and Teletext , but no subscription or premium services. Those followed on 31 March 2004 when Top Up TV began broadcasting 11 pay TV channels in timeshared broadcast slots. From 10 December 2002, ITV Digital's liquidators started to ask customers to return their set top boxes or pay
11639-475: Was expected to commence trials in March 2009. Thailand and the rest of ASEAN countries (with the exception of the Philippines; see above) have selected DVB-T as the final DTV standard, and are expected to switch off analogue broadcasts completely by 2015. In June 2008, participants of the 6th ASEAN Digital Broadcast Meeting from seven south-east Asian countries (including Thailand) agreed to finalise
11752-471: Was first rolled out in January 2014. By June 2015, free digital television was provided by MYTV Broadcasting . In the first phase, there would be around 15 digital television stations nationwide with further stations will be added in the next phase. By November 2016, MYTV set top box also available for sale in electronics store nationwide. Malaysia government officiated the launching of digital television in
11865-613: Was fully completed on 16 October at 12:30 am (UTC+8), while the final switch over in East Malaysia was completed on 31 October also at 12:30 am (UTC+8) as scheduled. The Maldives has chosen the Japanese-Brazilian standard ISDB-Tb . On 11 June 2010, National Telecommunications Commission of the Philippines announced that the country will use the Japanese ISDB-T International standard. The first fully operational digital TV channel
11978-435: Was inaugurated by the summer of 2022. Sky Cinema has a dedicated production team that produces over 100 hours of original film-related programming each year – including Sky Cinema News and The Top Ten Show . In addition, Sky's close relationships with the film studios means it regularly gets exclusive access for on-set to talenting one-off 'making-ofs' and various talent-based programming. In 1998 Elisabeth Murdoch (who
12091-443: Was later partially dropped after News Corporation agreed to buy Canal+'s struggling Italian operation Telepiu , a direct rival to a Murdoch-owned company in that country. Other legal action by EchoStar /NagraStar was being pursued as late as August 2005, accusing NDS of the same wrongdoing. In 2008, NDS was found to have broken piracy laws by hacking EchoStar Communications' smart card system, however only $ 1,500 in statutory damages
12204-413: Was launched in mid-1999, called ONgames. On 7 March 2000, ONmail was launched which provided an interactive e-mail service. A deal with multiplex operator SDN led to the launch of pay-per-view service ONrequest on 1 May 2000. In June 2000, ONoffer was launched. On 18 September 2000, the internet TV service ONnet was launched. On 17 June 2000, ONdigital agreed to a £315 million three-year deal with
12317-601: Was originally a single service as part of Sky's original four-channel package – alongside Sky News , Eurosport and Sky Channel (which later became Sky One ) – on the Astra 1A satellite system, . The first film shown on the channel was Project X . Before launch, Sky signed first-run deals with 20th Century Studios , Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. , Columbia Pictures , Orion Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution Company, Inc. (which included Touchstone Pictures and Disney ). One year after it began broadcasts, it became
12430-401: Was previously in common use since the middle of the 20th century. Test broadcasts began in 1998, and the changeover to digital television began in 2006 and is now complete in many countries. The advantages of digital terrestrial television are similar to those obtained by digitizing platforms such as cable TV, satellite, and telecommunications: more efficient use of radio spectrum bandwidth,
12543-486: Was previously the home of BSkyB's earlier rival, British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB). Six multiplexes were set up, with three of them allocated to the existing analogue broadcasters. The other three multiplexes were auctioned off. ONdigital was given one year from the award of the licence to launch the first DTT service. In addition to launching audio and video services, it also led the specification of an industry-wide advanced interactive engine, based on MHEG-5 . This
12656-513: Was rebranded as Sky Movies Greats and Sky Movies Indie became Sky Movies Select, whether the content of the three former brands was merged into Select and Greats. On 15 June 2016, Sky announced that Sky Movies would rebrand as Sky Cinema on 8 July within this change aligns the channel's naming with those of Sky's film services in other European countries, in consort with Sky plc's takeover of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia . To compete with subscription video-on-demand services, Sky announced that
12769-401: Was temporarily replaced by Sky Cinema Five Star Movies from the next day (31 December) until Premiere +1's return on 6 January 2021. On 30 April 2024, Sky Cinema Premiere +1 closed again, with Movies 24 moving to its old Sky EPG slot of 312. Sky Cinema subscribers are able to access Paramount+ United Kingdom , Ireland , Italy , Germany , Switzerland and Austria without charge, which
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