Archive for the ‘ITV’ Category

It’s a friendly, but England fans will expect nothing of the sort as Capello’s men challenge the current European and World Champions Spain, live this Saturday on ITV1.

England have the home advantage, but Spain’s squad is packed with breathtaking quality including the likes of midfield maestros Andres Iniesta and Xavi, as well as one of the world’s best ‘keepers in Iker Casillas and strikeforce options that include David Villa and Fernando Llorente.

The England fans insist on high standards, and recent squads have clearly buckled under the intense pressure and expectation, but with inspiring youthful talent like Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge breaking through, a new crop of players could be ready to bring the team out of its barren trophyless streak.

Unfortunately, controversy follows the England team, and this time round we have no Wayne Rooney due to a moment of petulance, and we may still see John Terry inexplicably start, and lead out the team, when he is still the subject of an FA investigation into racism allegations.

Nonetheless, it is sure to be an entertaining contest, as England have something to prove at home, whilst Spain currently play the most attractive football of all the nations by far.

Fans can watch live on Freeview and through any of the UK digital TV providers, with coverage starting at 4.45pm and the match kicking-off at 5.15pm.

Sky Sports will be showing the Euro 2012 qualifying play-off, between the Republic of Ireland and Estonia, with the Boys in Green looking to get into the tournament for only the second time; their debut ended in the first round back in 1988. The first leg is this evening, kicking-off at 19.45, whilst the second leg is on Tuesday at the same time. Both matches will be live on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD1.

Today has seen a landmark move in the world of F1, with Sky successfully purchasing the live broadcast rights to every single race from the 2012 season up to 2018.

This deal will put the globally popular, high-octane motor sport on UK pay-TV for the first time in its history, and is sure to ruffle a few feathers amongst licence-fee payers.

The BBC will still have joint rights to show half of the season’s races, qualifying laps and practice sessions, and the free-to-air channel will include live coverage of the renowned races at Silverstone and Monaco. The BBC will also have highlights of the races that are exclusively on Sky.

Undoubtedly Sky will consider this a major coup, and whilst the BBC still has some live coverage, F1 fanatics will certainly be tempted by Sky Sports, in light of this surprising news.

Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, was upbeat despite the loss of live coverage, saying: “We are absolutely delighted that F1 will remain on the BBC.”

“The sport has never been more popular with TV audiences at a 10-year high and the BBC has always stated its commitment to the big national sporting moments.”

“With this new deal not only have we delivered significant savings but we have also ensured that through our live and extended highlights coverage all the action continues to be available to licence-fee payers.”

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The hugely popular on demand catch-up service BBC iPlayer is now available in full to BT Vision customers.

Back in November last year, the BBC announced plans to bring the iPlayer to BT Vision, and TechRadar has confirmed the news that the complete service is now active. Some BBC content was already available through BT Vision’s TV Replay, but now the IPTV provider’s customers can access over 400 hours of BBC TV and 1,000 hours of BBC radio.

BT Retail’s chief exec of TV and online services said: “The launch of BBC iPlayer on BT Vision adds to the enormous range of quality entertainment already available to our customers.”

“We are really excited to be partnering with the BBC to bring BBC iPlayer to our customers.”

BBC iPlayer gives UK viewers the chance to watch the latest episodes of popular BBC shows such as Eastenders, Have I Got News For You, The Apprentice and Top Gear, as well as UK radio favourites including The Chris Moyles Show.

BT Vision provides digital TV through a BT Broadband connection in the home, and offers a wide range of Freeview channels, as well as the option to pay for movies and sport, and the catch-up service now includes programmes from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Satellite giant Sky has hinted at an unexpected U-turn regarding proposed on-demand TV service YouView.

YouView, formerly known as Project Canvas, will be an internet-connected TV service, offering the last 7 days of content at the touch of a button. It has officially been in the pipeline since late 2008, and collaborators have been welcomed.

Whilst BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five have all been firmly on board as owners/shareholders, the potential participation of Sky seemed dead in the water when the digital TV broadcaster tried to block the project in October of last year.

However, a Sky spokesman has now suggested that involvement may still be an option: “We already distribute Sky content across a wide range of platforms.”

“It makes sense for us to continue to explore new ways of reaching customers, but it’s too early to say at this stage whether we’ll offer a service over YouView.”

This non-committal, but intriguing, quote is the latest development in a complicated history for YouView, as the project was also publicly opposed by Virgin Media, whilst 3View managing director John Donovan expressed concerns about the market impact.

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Virgin Media has officially announced the arrival of high definition versions of popular sports channels Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2, whilst also stating that customers could make a saving of over £144 a year compared to Sky.

As of August 2nd, Virgin Media subscribers will be able to order the new Sky Sports HD channels for £7 a month if they have any TV package that includes standard definition Sky Sports. Virgin Media has confirmed that this optional HD subscription covers all Sky Premium channels; this would include Sky Movies HD. Sky customers must pay an additional £10 for the HD pack.

The HD versions of standard channels such as BBC, ITV1 and FX will remain free of additional subscription fees through Virgin Media.

The deal with rivals Sky will also see Virgin Media broadcast Sky1 HD and Sky Arts HD, whilst the total number of HD channels available through Virgin Media will reach 30.

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Sky has announced a massive footballing coup in the form of England’s away qualifiers for Euro 2012, co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

Digital Spy has confirmed that the rights deal will see Sky exclusively broadcasting away matches against Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro, as well as the British Isles derby against Wales at the Millennium Stadium.

ITV has successfully gained the rights for all the home matches.

Meanwhile, Sky has also struck a deal to broadcast the away qualifiers involving Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England’s qualifying rivals Wales.

Sky Sports managing director, Barney Francis, said: “All four away games on England’s qualifying campaign will be live, alongside matches for Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.”

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The UK’s first ever high definition Freeview+ personal video recorder has been launched by Pace.

Gadget website T3 confirms that the set-top box, called the Philips HDT8520 PVR, boasts an impressive 500GB hard drive, allowing users to record 250 hours of standard definition content, or 125 hours of HD.

The box also gives Freeviewers the option to pause, rewind and record live TV.

It retails at £299; although the hard drive spec  falls well short of Sky’s £249 1TB monster, Freeview does not require any monthly subscriptions and therefore does work out significantly cheaper in the long-term.

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Samsung will be spending big on promoting its range of 3D TVs. The Guardian has confirmed that £8million will be spent on the push, advertising the first 3D TVs to go on sale in the UK.

The campaign will include TV, press, outdoor and internet advertising over the course of three months.

The TV ad, which takes place in a city, took eight months to produce and involves 1,256 TV sets; 81 crew members were required to implement various outlandish effects such as a giant tabby cat, a moon landing and South America’s Iguazu Falls, leading to expressions of dazzled wonderment amongst city-dwellers.

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Virgin Media customers are now able to benefit from +1 channels showing the content from ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. Digital Spy confirms that ITV2+1 is showing on channel 116, whilst ITV3+1 is on 174 and ITV4+1 can be found on 175. ITV1 HD will be available from April 2nd on channel 113.

The ITV catch-up channels are already available to Sky viewers, so Virgin Media and its subscribers will welcome the news that they are no longer missing out. ITV2 is home to recent hit The Vampire Diaries, whilst ITV3 airs popular drama serials such as A Touch of Frost and Poirot. ITV4 shows a variety of programming including sports coverage of the Indian Premier League of cricket and the UEFA Europa League.

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ITV has finally dropped the beat; the cast will have more than just the right to remain silent – they will have no choice. After more than 25 years on our screens, ITV says that The Bill’s demise is part of a creative rethink, as opposed to a cost-cutting manoeuvre.

The Daily Mail revealed that ITV will channel the multi-million pound saving into producing drama serials with a shorter run, filling the same time slot. This is believed to include a new series from Foyle’s War writer Anthony Horowitz, as well as a new medical drama.

The Bill recently saw a shift from its regular time slot and bi-weekly format to a 9pm hour long episode once a week on Thursdays. This was an attempt by producers to revive the show’s flagging ratings. Whilst in 2002 the show brought an average of 7 million viewers, The Bill currently gets about 3.5 million. The Bill’s soap style format was dropped in favour of edgier, darker storylines with more grit and realism.

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