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Graham Simcocks, the company’s director until 2001, realizes that the technological issues hindered development. ‘The business failed to take seriously enough the whole range of technological issues: why the picture kept disappearing, the need to boost its power. That was the biggest reason for customers being put off. Then there were homes that were supposed to be within a reception area but still had problems,’ he says.

Another factor was the lack of incentive to buy ITV Digital. Although ITV’s major networks Carlton and Granada were behind the company, they didn’t provide exclusive access to their major programmes. ‘I think Carlton and Granada didn’t support it enough,’ says former ITV Digital sales director Matthew Seaman. ‘They should have given it more exclusive programmes. First runs of Coronation Street. Why not? Pay-television isn’t something that just happens. It needed a huge, bold move, equivalent to Sky’s Premier League. But the shareholders never felt they could risk the ITV crown jewels.’

Few could understand exactly the point of the network. At first, it had clearly tried to differentiate itself from BSkyB. Stephen Grabiner, ITV Digital’s first chief executive, once referred to Murdoch’s multi-channel vision for digital television as of interest only to ‘sad people who live in lofts’. However, ITV Digital later mimicked BSkyB’s football-centric strategy, by paying £315 million for the rights to televise matches from the Nationwide Football League. They also ended up buying movies from the satellite firm. ‘The inherent contradictions from the top down confused viewers,’ reckoned The Observer newspaper.

The Observer also pointed the finger at Charles Allen and Michael Green, the chairmen of the platform’s two shareholders, Granada and Carlton, and the other management figures:

Many in the City expect that, even if Allen and Green manage to hang on to their positions, allowing them to make a more leisurely exit later in the year, some of their lieutenants will soon have to fall on their swords. Question marks hang over the head of Granada chief executive Steve Morrison, who, at the height of negotiations with the Football League, opted to take a holiday in New Zealand. And it is hard to see how Stuart Prebble, a former journalist who, despite having no experience in the pay TV arena, rose to become chief executive of ITV and ITV Digital, can stay in the ITV fold.

But alongside managerial failings, some things were beyond the company’s control. For instance, despite assurances from the Independent Television Commission (ITC) that the power of ITV Digital’s broadcasting signal would be increased, nothing happened. Coverage was reduced to include only about half of the UK. Also, the ITC’s decision to force Sky out of the original consortium – over ‘fears of a Murdoch dominated media’ according to The Observer – meant that none of the companies behind the platform had solid expertise within the pay-TV arena.

‘The ITC kept Sky out. If Sky had been allowed to stay in, ITV Digital would have got to 3 million subscribers by now,’ said Dermont Nolan of media consultancy TBS in April 2002. That some month ITV Digital met its demise and called in the administrators from Deloitte and Touche. Although there were over 100 expressions of interest in the platform’s assets most of the interest was to do with the brand’s mascot, the ITV Digital monkey which became something of a celebrity in a series of adverts featuring comedian Johnny Vegas. Unfortunately, the monkey’s popularity didn’t rub off on the platform it was promoting.

Lessons from ONdigital/ITV Digital

Be available. Technological problems meant that the platform wasn’t available in many parts of the UK.

Be reliable. These same problems led to a reputation for unreliability.

Have a strong incentive. ITV Digital didn’t simply require people to switch channels. They needed to go out and get completely new technology to place on top of their TVs. To do that, they