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Originally Posted by Chad
Sorry I'm a little puzzled. Does this mean Smallworld can't get access to ITV2 HD "due to the lock-out signed into the carriage agreement with the other operators"?
I thought Adam Crozier confirmed about 18 months ago that the deal with SKY for ITV2HD, ITV3HD and ITV4HD was a non-exclusive deal. Adam Crozier also stated:
"Building new revenue streams by exploiting our content across multiple platforms is a key part of the ITV transformation plan."
It seems strange that some lock-out deal would be in place between SKY and ITV unless a deal has recently been agreed with ITV and Virgin, but not yet announced. Similar to the SKY deal with ITV, which made SKY the exclusive satellite broadcaster of the channels, maybe Virgin are the exclusive cable carrier of the channels which locks out Smallworld.
Why would ITV and Virgin delay announcing such a deal? Who knows. But remember it wasn't too long ago that Virgin, Eurosport and the BBC deliberately held back announcing their deal to bring 2012 Olympics to Virgin Media customers by way of linear channels.
Personally I view the post from Smallworld a a positive that the missing ITV HD channels might actually be on their way to Virgin soon.
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David Durnford, Smallworld's MD, added that that cost of ITV2, 3 and 4 in HD is "prohibitive...due to the contract ITV has with Sky." He then speculated that this might be the reason that VM too said no for the same reason. One wold speculate that it is likely that VM is being asked the same amount of money and that VM has said no.
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...1#post58094971
Isn't it such a shame that VM chooses not to be open like Mr Durnford chooses to be regarding answering people's enquiries about Smallworld which is why we are always speculating about everything concerning VM. Mr Durnford's openness and helpfulness is a credit to himself and how he chooses to run his company and this openness makes me sometimes which I could have Smallworld instead of VM even though Smallworld seems not to be currently offering any on demand services.