ITV on Astra 2 - the SD shutdown begins...

ITV is making some changes to increase their HD offering.

On 20 October, ITV HD launches in Yorkshire East, Central East, Anglia West, Meridian North and Meridian South.
Also on 20 October 2020, ITV SD closes in Border England, Anglia West, Meridian North and Yorkshire East. ITV+1 closes in Anglia, West, Tyne Tees, Westcountry, Wales and Yorkshire. These closing ITV SD and ITV+1 services will be replaced by larger regions.
But don’t worry – after the changes, you’ll still be able to record all your favourite programmes on ITV following these few simple steps.
  • Just go to your Sky planner from 20 October 2020, and delete any planned recordings you have set on ITV SD, ITV+1 or ITV HD.
  • Then, re-select what you want to record from in the TV Guide (including any series links). Programmes recorded before 20 October 2020 will not be affected and these changes will not affect ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITVbe or any other channel.
And remember, if you miss your favourite ITV programme you can find ITV Player in the Catch-up area on your Sky+ or Sky Q box.

As announced on Sky's website...


...pretty sudden announcement, but it looks like ITV are aware of HD kit penetration in Sky & Freesat homes (would be at least partially based on, but not wholly on viewing figures for their SD & HD versions of the main ITV channel) and have decided to start the ball rolling with dropping the SD/HD simulcast for most of their regions.

This obviously begs the question as to what the BBC's, and to a lesser extent Channel 4's plans regarding phasing out SD are for the medium to long term.
 

Attachments

  • itv-hd.png
    itv-hd.png
    201.3 KB · Views: 175,968

From April 13 households with an SD-only satellite set-top box in the ITV Meridian Thames Valley and ITV Meridian West part of the region will still receive ITV in the usual way but will need to upgrade to a High Definition (HD) box to continue to see the correct news service we provide for those parts of the region. There are no changes for our Meridian East service in Kent and East Sussex.
 
On Sky+ HD I'm now getting Granada SD on channel 103, the correct Tyne Tees HD has been bumped off to channel 803 :confused
 
Top