ITC responds to ITV Digital announcement
27th March 2002
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) notes the statement issued today by the Board of ITV Digital and the appointment of Deloitte and Touche as administrators.
The ITC welcomes confirmation that the ITV Digital service will be maintained during the administration for its over one million existing viewers. Free-to-air public service broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will also continue digital broadcasting of their public services on digital terrestrial television.
The ITC, as the regulator of the independent television sector, has been in close contact with ITV Digital and its shareholders since the restructuring of the company was confirmed last month.
The ITC is advising the Administrator of the ITC's statutory responsibilities in respect of the multiplex licences and of the viewers' interest in a continued pay TV service.
Information for viewers is being made available via: the ITC's web site www.itc.org.uk.; ITV's web site www.itv.co.uk; through Channel 50 on ITV Digital; on Channel 4's web site www.channel4.com; and on the BBC's web site www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice. Viewers can also call the ITC's Viewer Relations Unit on tel: 0845 601 3608.
An ITC spokesman said today:
"Digital Terrestrial Television has an important role in the UK's broadcasting ecology and is crucial to the path to switchover. We hope the continuing negotiations are successful."
Notes to Editors
- Some of the ITC's main statutory responsibilities regarding DTT are set out in the Broadcasting Act 1990 (Section 2) and the Broadcasting Act 1996 (Section 8).
- The ITC shares the Government's policy objective to create a framework that will enable digital switchover to be realised. However, the ITC has no statutory obligation to ensure the continuation of the DTT platform.