ITV

Advantages: Good UEFA coverage
Disadvantages: Too many Soaps and too much Drama.

...plethora of choices for viewers. ITV launched ITV Digital, a similar set up to that of the BBC, with a News and Sports channel. Trouble was that the coverage was so bad that the News Channel folded and the Sports Channel didn't really have much to show as Sky had most of the rights to the Football games that ITV wanted, so ITV had no choice but to show games that were further down the league tables. After the expensive failure of the ITV Digital ...
...embarrassment when the launch of ITV Play was found to be raising funds without giving viewers a fair chance of competing in the games being broadcast. For example that the 1000 players who had phoned in to a premium line experienced a busy tone even though they had paid £1 to get through, so you could have a couple of hundred people continuously trying a £1 per time with the phone being answered to every 1 in 50 players who got through to the show. ... Read review

Advantages: Champions League, F1, WWTBAM, appeals to the masses...
Disadvantages: ...with low-brow crap

...it could be said that ITV (or Scottish) as it’s known in these parts is one of the best, but that doesn’t excuse the list of low-brow crap the channel churns out to the nation. Scottish is a bad channel. But let’s start by concentrating on the little positive content the station provides. Top of the list for me is certainly the football coverage, mostly the Champions League, but also a live match during FA Cup weekend. Sadly the ...
...matches, because their coverage is pretty awful. It has improved massively recently, but Des Lynam has lost a lot of his charm, having to introduce ads and their isn’t enough time for good studio discussion. Professional Man Utd fan Clive Tylsley is their main commentator with the awful Ron Atkinson. For some reason they prefer his ‘knowledge’ to the far superior David Pleat for most matches. Wasn’t I meant to be positive? ... Read review

Advantages: Some very good programmes
Disadvantages: Adverts, some dross, Barrymore

...to watch include three on ITV – Crossroads, Coronation Street and Bad Girls. I have written separate opinions on all of these <yawn> so won’t go into too much detail about each one here. Suffice to say I think they are all really good programmes. I certainly don’t understand why Crossroads is getting so much criticism, it is miles better than the original series. ITV also rules the roost on a Saturday morning, with the wonderful ...
...so I then turn onto ITV for the end of Trisha, even if I haven’t seen the start. This is followed by This Morning, the 12:30pm news, Shortland Street (not really into this, but it’s okay in the background – or I turn to BBC for its news), Crossroads then Live Talk. Brilliant. Of course, being a mother and a housewife, these few hours are my cherished child-free time. I don’t always get chance to watch TV – this morning, ... Read review

Advantages: Free with the license fee
Disadvantages: Too many adverts, crappy sidebar credit for all peak-time/networked programmes (idealogy sucks), no longer the ITV it was originally meant to be

...like its going to turn ITV from the original blueprint model of 16 localised services into one or two big ones. And it'll be Carlton or Granada that runs them all. But that's another opinion. ITV is run from ITV Network Centre in London and its here that network decisions are made for peak-time programmes (like Coronation Street) and other networked programmes (live events and programmes like Crossroads and the ITN news). The programmes themselves ...
...programmes made by my local ITV company (which used to be ATV which then became Central in 1982 which then became Carlton in 1997) are really pleasant to watch and I can watch them easily. This probably explains why I get on with Crossroads (Carlton) and not Coronation Street (Granada) :-) There is a wide range of programming, but then there has to be. Most ITV regions overnight join a generalised strand of programmes from Network Center (most of ... Read review

Advantages: Very few
Disadvantages: Too much reality TV, "Celebrity" obsesssion, promotional overkill, too much dumbing down

...used to be a big ITV fan - there was usually something interesting to watch on most days of the week. Survival, A Touch of Frost, Soldier Soldier, Inspector Morse; all high quality programmes that appealed to a wide age range. But what are we stuck with now? Crass reality shows like "Celebrity Love Island", "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!", and most horrific of all, "Celebrity Wrestling". Not to mention some truly diabolical "dramas", such ...
...flash of naked flesh. Only ITV can get away with this as we do not pay them a licence fee - if the BBC started broadcasting trash like this, there would be a public outcry and the D.G. would be told to resign! Reality TV is also extremely inexpensive to produce (and don't let the programme-makers tell you otherwise). For every five episodes of "Celebrity Has-Beens on Botox Island", they could probably have produced an exceptional drama, comedy or ... Read review

Advantages: Sky Digital generally better for most packages
Disadvantages: ITV Digital better for low cost packages, no installation charge

...So you've had enough of 5 channels? Time to get some real choice you think; but what is better? Well there's no definitive answer, depends on what you want. But having both puts me in a good position to give a comparison between both. So... Installation ITV Digital wins here. Sky costs much more initialy because of installation charges. Currently, these are £50 if you subscribe to the full sky pack (sports+movies) - Sky World, £80 if you subscribe to any other package, or £100 if you don't subscribe to them at all. Sky isn't for the paranoid amongst you either, to get the digibox and minidish at these subsidised prices you have to agree to have your digibox connected to your phoneline for a year. The plus point is you own the system after a year, so even if you cancel Sky, you still get to keep the equipment for free to air... Read review

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Advantages: It shows football...
Disadvantages: Everything else is crap

...In a fit of rage normally associated with when someone tries to take money away from me, I sit and stare at the telly. Once more, money has triumphed over quality and we, the viewers, have no say in the matter. What is this that has brought the rage upon the normally placid and laid back Duke? Well, it’s ITV’s The Premiership. ITV have never been renowned for their football coverage, and when I heard that, once again, Auntie Beeb had lost yet another sport (and not just any sport – they managed to lose the most popular sport in the world!) I resigned myself to some second rate football coverage come the new season. So, here we are in the new season, and I have five or so weeks of The Premiership under my belt. Each Saturday night, at approximately 20:15 o’clock, I cry into my cup of tea as I’ve wasted... Read review

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Advantages: Free to air
Disadvantages: ? any comments

...After 15 years my analogue TV was on its was on its way out, rather than rush into a digital TV at great expense I decided to try a new analogue TV (with scart sockets) and a Phillips free view digital box. Amongst the selection of stations ITV2 a free - to - air TV channel owned by ITV plc. I'm hoping to pay for it with the proceeds from reviews of stations available. Keep you eyes open. Some of the information below is from Wikipedia (a website) more is available there. THE FACTS Launched in 7/12/1998 via satellite, cable, terrestrial (freeview). It had an estimated audience of 1.8 % share (multi channel home user) in April 2006. Showings start daily from 9.25 am. Most of the content is made up of ITV1 programmes shown at a later time examples include Coronation street, imported American programs such as Judge Judy and extended... Read review

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