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ITV boss admits summer schedule failings
Tucked away in this article about ITV's summer schedule failures (Celebrity Love Island failed because we foolishly promised advertisers that we would target the 16-34 demographic during the 'quiet' season thereby losing everyone else - duh!) is the revelation that ITV intends to re-enter the pay-TV market sometime in the near future using its recently acquired SDN multiplex.
However there are some predictable obstacles to overcome such as a need to obtain a secure and compatible encryption system together with extra capacity (and channels), but both problems can be solved by somehow acquiring Top Up TV. And ITV's plan to perhaps get Disney to swap its GMTV stake for a joint venture in a kids' channel could create another potential subscription service.
ITV has presumably been encouraged by the minor success (so far) of the Top Up TV business model which is to offer a modest package at a modest price; something that BSkyB has difficulty in matching due to its requirement to cross-subsidise a whole raft of pay channels. Plus ITV can make extensive use of cross-promotion on its existing channels (unlike Top Up TV) for a new service.
Of course ITV has been down this path before with ITV Digital, though competing head on with BSkyB was never a great idea in the first place.
