Why don't Channel4 and Utv come on line

jimbob

Rte and Tv3 are to broadcast in NI so why cant Utv and channel4 come down here.
The people with NI cards must be laughing. They now will have all the channels , an even better choice than those in England Scotland and Wales and of course us.
i think i'll hold out on getting sky a little longer.

robert muldoon

I am a new member to this forum and I have done a bit of research into this problem:
First,this is not a BSKYB problem. This is an issue between UTV and ITV in London, which further involves Carlton and Granada,ie copyright issues.There also EU directives involved related to rebroadcasting SATELLITE (not cable or microwave) outside the UK.Howver BBC were able to overcome this problem, if there's a will I believe it could be solved. Because the makeup of ITV is a bit complex to say the least, this may take some time to resolve,it depends on how much leverage UTV can put on ITV in London.Asyou may have seen from the annual results of UTV just published,they depend a lot on ad revenue from ROI.
So to conclude , I think its only a matter of time before this is sorted, howmuch time I dont know. Maybe this year. Also ITV may be putting their efforts into sorting out ITV Digital. ofwhich there is a lot of publicity about at the moment
Thats about it in a nutshell,maybe somebody else can shed further light on the subject.
My email: robertmuldoon@hotmail.com

jimbob

Are Utv owned by Carlton or granada. i don't think they are. Maybe thats the problem. With TV3 now being practically a Granada company, they might not want a lot of competition from Utv.
Also in the uk they show multiple itv's in crossover areas. Surely Roi is now classed as a crossover area between UTV and TV3. In the north they will have both shortly so why not down here.
If utv want to come down here they should pressurise the heads at itv. This would be a good time with all the problems with itv digital. They would probably just signed the forms and let it go.

Thinking of it a bit more when TV3 comes on air there probably wont be as much demand for UTV as they are practically the same.
Same soaps- we all know them
Same dramas- cold feet
Same films well some anyway
Champs league better on TV3
Jerry Springer
etc etc

robert muldoon

UTV is an idependent company but gets all its programs from ITV which is owned by Carlton and Granada,so its a bit compicated, when it comes to rebroadcasting outside its own regions ie The UK.Bur as I stated earlier the BBC have managed to do it on BKYB, so I cant see why ITV cant do it if they want to,but as you said a lot of the pressure will have to come from UTV.

PacMan

When we say UTV, we actually mean the ITV station. This is what I cannot understand about the UTV/ITV situation.
ITV network Centre, inform us that "As UTV is an independent company ...blah blah...... But Independent of what?
Is it ITV or not??? If UTV is independent, why does it not just broadcast on Sky? If it is a regional ITV, why is it broadcasting on cable but not on Satellite. Why are Satellite and cable licences for the Broadcasters different anyway. Surely if you buy programme rights for the UK, that it would cover just that. Terrestrial, cable and Satellite rights, why arent they all the same.

d-j-k

Because it doesn't own the full rights to the programmes it rebroadcasts. UTV is an affiliate channel of the ITV network. Most ITV programming is produced by Granada/Carlton and also some by Yorkshire TV etc..

Smaller affiliates:
UTV
Scotish TV
Grampian TV
Channel TV
HTV Wales
HTV West
etc

all buy in programming from the network but are only entitled to broadcast it within their licenced areas.

TV3 and RTE buy programmes from those Carlton/Granada etc and broadcast it here, so it would not be in their interests necessarily to have same programmes on 2 channels in the same territory.

I would be quite willing to pay a sub for Channel 4 though!!! I don't particularly care about UTV

teddy2002

Did anyone notice the advertisement on the front page of the Sunday Independent. Its was placed by channel 4, promoting the new series of the West Wing.

freetoair

One of the other main issues is commerce. UTV as an part of the ITV group of channels have bought programming rights to broadcast in the province of Ulster.
There are overspills in terresterial transmissions and a so called blind eye can be turned to this as they cannot be controlled.
But from Granada's point of view, why should they hand the satellite rights for the Republic of Ireland to UTV on a plate.
What's stopping HTV (or any other ITV company) for example from broadcasting into the ROI and reaping the commercial benefits from the advertising revenue.

Until they decide on how the market will be shared we will not get UTV.
Speculation has it that Granada will dig its heels in and view TV3 as being a ROI regional variation of ITV, effectively telling UTV 'hands off the republic'.

I don't think we'll see UTV for a long while.....look at how long we're waiting for Channel 4 & Channel 5 which have been available on UK cards for years.

ejmaztec

As I pointed out in another post - TV3 and UTV are financially related. Canwest, a Canadian media outfit, apparently owns about 29% of UTV. The company also owns 45% of TV3, the same percentage as Granada. It's also the same company that acquired Endemol, the company behind Big Brother.

Originally posted by :d-j-k
Smaller affiliates:
UTV
Scotish TV
Grampian TV
Channel TV
HTV Wales
HTV West
etc

HTV is owned by Carlton,It is not an independent like UTV or the others above unfortunately.

It is going to be interesting to see what happens when TV3 go onto the Sky ROI EPG.
will UTV get there at all??
Will Canwest be happy to get their slice of ROI profit via TV3 alone?? I can see the logic there....

Theres cuckoo's in the nest...I say theres Cuckoo's in the nest:D
Granada and Canwest would make strange bedfellows indeed.
But it's a threesome... and threesome's are nice:rolleyes:
Both have an incentive to keep UTV out - something in common.
Why have two related outfits competing with the same progamming for the same advertising-It wouldn't make sense.
Ah yes I can hear them cry consolidate...
Lets work together on this:rolleyes:
And who has more influence at ITV network centre(the guys who pulled the big ROI ITV on Sky switch off) the giant Granada or little old UTV??
I'm keeping my BBC Card for a while folks.
mm

TinMan

The reason we won't see channel 4 is outlined in the mail I recieved today..

I sent them this:
"I am a Sky Digital customer in Ireland and I was wondering if Channel 4 intend to allow ROI customers to view channel 4, as UK customers currently have the channel on digital.

As Channel4 is avaliable on cablelink and Analogue systems in the Republic of Ireland I was wondering why not make it avaliable to us on Digital.?"

And they sent this lovely reply :mad:

"Unfortunately Channel 4 do not have a licence to broadcast outside of the UK so any digital television bought in the Republic of Ireland will not include Channel 4. The reason why some Southern Irish viewers can watch Channel 4 is because they are picking it up from the Belfast Transmitter. This is called fortuitous reception.

Sorry to disappoint."

West Briton

And that's called a load of ballcocks. :rolleyes:

PacMan

This is called fortuitous reception.
What a load of cr*p.
Channel 4 is paid by the Irish cable co's through the suscriptions.

Me thinks the same people write these e-mails as the same monkies at ITV network centre.

Tinman. You should reply to Channel 4, asking them why they took out front page ads in last Sundays Indo. Also ask them why they have ads aimed at the Republic when they have regional opt-outs. Tell them that Channel 4 accept the money that the Irish Cable companies give them.

This makes me mad. These people think we are a bunch of idiots...........

icdg

To let you know how the ITV Network works:

There were fifteen companies for the UK on Channel 3. Each was awarded a licence to broadcast in a particular area. Each are required to participate in a national network - ITV - under the Networking Arrangements.

The fifteen companies have set up a company limited by guarentee/not for profit of which they are all members. This is the ITV Network Centre and its function is to commission programmes from the licencees and third parties. It buys UK-wide rights to these programmes and sublets them to the licencees. It also buys and clears rights to foreign programmes (mainly films nowadays). Each company contributes to the network budget under a formula based on the size of their region and in return recieves rights to broadcast these programmes in their region, as well as voting rights at the ITV Council

However over the years restrictions on common ownership of the companies have been reduced signifcantly. Carlton Communications plc has acquired four ITV licences including London weekdays (Carlton TV) and Central, two of the biggest ITV companies in terms of programmes made. Granada plc has acquired seven, including the other majors: Granada TV, LWT, and Yorkshire Television. Thus these two groups together dominate voting strenght on the ITV Council and hence can decide network policy in their own interests.

UTV is the only company left in the network to have its shares quoted on the stock exchange, the others are all in some way part of groups. (Even Channel, though its parent company has no other involvement in ITV).

They should make these channels available in the Falkland islands:rolleyes:
It is clear somebody now responsible for replies from Ch 4 doesn't like us.
The replies are not coming from people in the know,just the underlings.
They wouldn't know what the Sunday Indo is and would probably send another silly and meaningless reply:mad:
mm