ITV Player Disappointment
 

With the build up to ITV Player coming onto VM I think the current catch up content is very disappointing. I know that ITV may not have the rights for catch up to a lot of the programming they show but a lot more is available on line. With the news of today from ITV I would think that the more programs of theirs they can promote on any platform the better. Getting people interested in various series through catch up can only boost audiences for future episodes to help in generating future advertising revenue.

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

Unfortunately just as it is with the BBC iPlayer - ITV are responsible for the content. They choose what goes on it

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

It's only just launched... I'd give it a little more time... it should get better :)

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

I understand from press releases the contract for catch up content as signed was for 40hrs. In that sense although it is limited I cannot criticise either ITV or Virgin Media for being absolutely straight up with us, unlike the iPlayer which when initially launched was vastly overhyped and a bit limited.

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

Hasn't been anything worth watching on ITV for years anyway, def the worst channel out of the main five.

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I disagree. Although I dont watch much on the TV these days I do look forward to the Drama's that ITV put out. Cant speak for what else is on the channel as dont watch much but think they put out some great drama's.

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I think with the ITV news breaking this week, its days are numbered, catch-up or otherwise.

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

I think you may be right.

I always used to favour ITV local news but since they sacked Caroline Oldrey and Tim Curtis and replaced them with the thoroughly charismally challenged Becky Jago and her equally wooden sidekick I've dumped ITV's Main and Local News in favour of the Beeb.

I fear this to be just the tip of the iceberg. :(

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

I agree - There's so much more available online - i took a look on launch day and haven't looked since

I think PVR's & VOD (ability to skip ads) owes much to the demise of commercial TV

but the solution seems plainly obvious - VOD with compulsary adverts (no-skip as per live TV) - from an advertisers prospective it's the *best* way to advertise

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Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

Not really - with viewing figures, the difference between overnights and finals which come a couple of weeks later and include time-shifted viewing are not that big. They might add an extra half-million to a top-rated show that got 7-8 million 'live' viewers on the overnight ratings. VOD and PVRs are great but they are still small fry when you consider the overall size of the TV audience in the UK.

ITV's real problems have come from an overall shrinkage in the number of people watching TV, the growth of digital commercial channels which are eroding the ratings for all the public service broadcasters, several years of unimaginative, stodgy commissioning decisions and, more recently, a nasty recession which has caused the bottom to drop out of the advertising market.

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

5% viewer using PVR?

I dont think so!

Personally i dont even *know* anybody that doesn't have PVR (Sky+ V+ or freeview) & that's 100% - even my one million year old dad has PVR


i'd still maintain that loss of commercial money (on commercial TV station) is main problem (i wouldn't pay for an advert i know people will skip) - however i would pay a premium for an advert that people *must* watch


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Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

Actually the timeshift stats also include people recording with good old fashioned VCRs, or DVD recorders. They are not entirely a function of PVRs. The only constraint BARB puts on the figures is that the timeshifted viewing has to occur within 7 days of transmission. Nevertheless I didn't say only 5% of homes have a PVR or use VOD, I simply used BARB stats to show that PVR and VOD usage has not dented overall viewing figures as much as you claim it has.

I hear what you're saying about the number of people you know with PVRs but that's the danger of quoting personal experience when the reality as shown by statistics is actually very different.

PVRs and VOD are almost exclusively available through only Sky and Virgin. Yes, you can get Freeview+ now but it's very new, and yes there are a few loyal TiVo users still out there, but basically the number of PVR users is a subset of the number of pay-TV subscribers in the UK.

Virgin has a little under half a million V+ subs (that's about 14% of their total subscriber base) and Sky has over 3 million. 3.5 million '+' users is about 14% of all UK households. Put another way, that's about one in seven homes, which is rather less than the 'everybody's got one' which comes from your own experience.

Incidentally, I don't have one, so now you know someone who doesn't. ;)

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

Getting back to your point, KnightRider, Virgin Media has contracted ITV to place 40 hours of Catch-Up and 500 hours of TV Choice.

Accordingly, the number of programmes on Catch-Up will be constrained to the most popular shows/soaps, but there should be a decent choice on the TV Choice section when it is fully loaded.

Given that we have this without paying any more in subscriptions, we shouldn't really grumble! However, it is a shame that we cannot have loads more programmes on demand (from all channels including American series) with the payment of (say) a £15 subscription. If the programme choice became really good by doing so, I'd gladly give up my Sky Movies subscription in exchange! There would have to be an excellent choice, though and the TV series section would have to be stable so that you could guarantee seeing the last programme in a series of 16 without having the whole thing disappear half way through without warning.

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

here you've only included Sky & VM - whereas i also included freeview PVR - earlier you even quoted VCR & DVD

*everybody* has one or tother and either method means they can skip ads and i still maintain that's where/why advertising money has disappeared - without which commercial TV cant survive

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Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

Yep - and I gave a reason for excluding Freeview+, namely that it's relatively new and has fewer users than the other two. In fact it was revealed in January that 900,000 have been sold, so if you like we could up the number of '+' users in my calculations to 4.5 million. It doesn't really make a huge difference.

I excluded old-fashioned timer-based home recording (which DVD recorders are, just as much as VCRs) because this has been widely available to households for well over 20 years now, yet ITV's troubles are recent - from which I conclude, people recording ITV and zipping through adverts is not really what's behind their problem.

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

I think with all the extra channels and the internet there is simply far more competition for advertising revenue, tv will simply have to cut it's cloth accordingly. Unfortunately that will mean lower, and probably inferior, budget programmes.

Re: ITV Player Disappointment
 

If that were the case, commercial TV would have been killed off by the VCR twenty years ago.

---------- Post added at 15:16 ---------- Previous post was at 15:14 ----------

Actually, skipping ads isn't necessarily a problem as long as they can get the logo up on screen for a few seconds. This is exactly why most ads end on a lingering shot of the product or manufacturer logo.

As has been said above, the main cause for ITV's problems is the fact that there are far more channels. Back in the 80s, when ITV had it's hey day, they had maybe 5 to 10 commercial channels.. Now, with the TV viewing numbers having stayed nearly static, there are over 300 channels to chose from, their potential audience is much smaller.

Also, I read an article that said something interesting. They were talking about ITV's fortunes. They were saying the main problem ITV has is nothing to do with the number of viewers, or the quality of their programming. Their problem is simple: A lot of their advertisers are looking to cut costs, and Advertising is one of the first costs to be cut.