Another problem with ON Digital is that the set-top boxes are sold in corner shops or large supermarkets, and the selling price includes the rental of the set-top box and the first year's subscription fee.
Since activation of the subscription card does not require any bank account details, many of the so-called rented set-top boxes actually have unverifiable addresses.
Furthermore, the encryption system used by ON Digital's pay-per-view channels has been decrypted in Europe, which means it is very easy for people to make and sell pirated receiving cards to receive these channels.
Other problems with ON Digital's operations include a complex pricing system and a poor subscriber management system.
While competitor BSkyB already offers an electronic program guide, they still only offer users a paper TV guide.
And they don't provide enough technical support to their customers...
Finally, Carlton and Granada did not directly employ ON Digital's management and operations staff, many were offered short-term contracts, and some key figures left without notice.
Competition and poor management led to a high customer churn rate for ONdigital. In order to change the situation, Granada Television Limited and Carlton Television Limited changed the name of ON Digital to ITV Digital on July 11, 2001.
Because the two TV stations that formed ON Digital were both owned by ITV, in order to borrow the fame of ITV, the name was changed to ITV Digital.
But ITV Digital is still in trouble, especially after they bought the TV broadcasting rights of the English Football League from the English Football Association at a high price...
Because Sky TV has the broadcasting rights for the Premier League, its sports channel attracts fans to pay to watch.
In order to compete with it, ITV Digital decided to launch a sports channel and spent a huge price to buy the broadcasting rights of the English Football League.
In fact, the cost of the English Football League has become a huge burden for ITV Digital.
The FA took Granada Television Ltd and Carlton Television Ltd to court in March 2002 due to its inability to pay the television rights fees in full.
On June 1, 2002, most of ITV Digital's channels ceased broadcasting.
Before it was discontinued, ITV Digital operated around 100 pay digital terrestrial television channels.
After ITV Digital ceased broadcasting, OFCOM reorganized the auction of licenses for the three multicast channels, muxB, C and D. Currently, only the BBC and Summit Media are participating in the bidding for the licenses.
Prior to this, the three terrestrial digital television licenses owned by ITV Digital were all pay channels.
During this round of negotiations, OFCOM also proposed to add the restriction of "free broadcast only" to the licenses of the three multicast channels muxB, C and D owned by ITV Digital.
In other words, after obtaining these licenses, the TV channels they launch can only be broadcast for free and cannot charge content fees. In other words, most of them can only make profits through additional means such as advertising, which is also a point that the BBC is dissatisfied with.
"In fact, the BBC also proposed to form a company with us to operate the three licenses together, but this is not the best option for us at the moment, so we finally rejected the proposal and prepared to compete for one of the licenses alone."
Fergal's decision was also instructed by Barron.
It can be seen that ITV Digital, which had three terrestrial digital television licenses at the time, launched about 100 TV channels.
In other words, not every license corresponds to only one TV channel. This is determined by the technical principles of digital TV. To put it bluntly, if you have a license, you can own a group of TV channels - as for the specific number of channels, dozens of them are fine.
The current situation of Summit Media is that, unlike the BBC or Sky TV, they have sufficient content to broadcast, so in the initial stage, they will only open one channel temporarily and then increase it step by step.
It is unnecessary for them to form a joint venture with the BBC or to buy too many licenses on their own.
"Things have been delayed for several months. We are not the ones who are anxious. OFCOM must either compromise with the BBC or put pressure on it. We just need to follow their lead and accept their terms. It is impossible for our terms to be much worse than those of the BBC. The most important thing for us now is to start purchasing program content, so that we don't end up owning a TV channel but not having enough content to fill the broadcast time."
Barron gave such instructions. After all, a serious TV channel is not like what they do now, using ITV's broadcast time for only one hour a day.
Even if there is time for rest, the nearly twenty hours of broadcasting time from morning to early morning still needs to be guaranteed. What's more, Barron is prepared to broadcast it 24 hours a day without interruption - this way of broadcasting has long become a routine.
"We have already talked to ITV about buying some of their content, including some TV series and variety shows, and because they have already been broadcast, the price is very cheap."
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Barron also said to him:
"I have previously talked to John Smith, who is in charge of TV content transactions for the American Sinclair family. We can also introduce some programs from their TV stations, mainly variety shows and TV dramas. In addition, in terms of news, we can cooperate with independent newspapers to jointly produce news programs."
Relatively speaking, the broadcasting time of a TV channel at noon and before 11pm in the evening are considered prime time, plus the morning news program, which are mainly filled by programs produced by Summit Media itself.
As for other time periods with smaller audience groups, especially the period from midnight to 6 a.m. when very few people watch, they can be filled with some relatively "cheap" imported content, at least in the early stages.
"In addition, we also need an experienced content acquisition editor to look for potential programs to acquire from independent production companies."
At present, it seems that Fergal is performing quite well in these matters, and Barron is also ready to give him a chance to see if he is capable of doing it.
Otherwise, we can only dig a qualified manager from other TV stations.
When it came time for dinner, Barron hosted the Downton Abbey cast at Chatsworth House.
Although the producer and screenwriter are both Julian, because the filming was done a few years earlier than the original time and space - in the previous life, "Downton Abbey" was not released until 2010 - many of the characters and leading actors in this TV series are different from the version that Barron had seen in his previous life.
The actors who play the Duke, Duchess and old lady of Crawley are still familiar faces to Barron, and their ages will not be affected by filming a few years earlier.
Among them, the actors who played the three daughters of the Duke of Crawley have all changed.
Among these people, Barron saw an actor who looked very familiar—the actress who played the female botanist in "Iron Man 3" that he had seen in his previous life.
Her sexy look at that time left a deep impression on Barron.
The actors felt honored to be entertained by the young and handsome Duke of Barron, who was also one of the authors of the novel.
During the conversation, Barron also learned the name of the familiar actress, Rebecca Hall, who is just 20 years old this year and played Sybil, the youngest daughter of the Crawley family in "Downton Abbey".
Rebecca comes from an acting family. She starred in her first TV series when she was 10 years old, and her father was the producer of that TV series...
At this time, Rebecca was studying English literature at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge University. However, because of her father, she participated in the audition for "Downton Abbey" and was selected. For such a rare opportunity, she temporarily applied for a leave of absence.
"I heard from a friend that there is a website called Woaw in the school, which is selecting the most beautiful female student in Cambridge. The winner will receive a reward from Your Highness the Duke..."
During the event, Rebecca took the initiative to say to Barron:
"It's a pity that I didn't sign up because I was filming..."