The launch of ITV3 onto Sky - 2100UTC on 1st November 2004

 

Monday, November 1st 2004, and ITV3 finally launches on the Sky platform after much anticipation, and discussion of if it would actually appear at all. Right up until the afternoon of 1st November, ITV and Sky were locked in delicate negotiations. These culminated in some sudden changes on the Sky platform during the afternoon of the 1st November. ITV2 was moved onto epg 118. This was previously the home of Granada PLUS.  Plus has been sacrificed to get ITV 3 on air - in fact, it was pulled off air in the middle of an episode of "Pie in the Sky"! ITV3 appeared on epg 119 (nicely leaving 120 for the launch of ITV4 in 2006). ITV 3 is fta :-)

The week before launch, and this test card was radiating on 10906V sr 22000 fec 5/6. At the moment, ITV 3 is still being advertised as being on Freeview and Digital Cable only.

test card radiating the week before the launch

 

Over the weekend of 30/31st October, the test card was changed to this one:

ITV 3 testcard radiating 2 days before launch

 

This was radiating on the afternoon of 1st November:

ITV 3 test card - the afternoon of 1st Nov 2004

 

2000UTC, and the 1 hour to launch clock starts to roll:

2000UTC and the countdown to service start clock stars to roll


At 2100 there were no fancy introductions, no "This is ITV3" type thing, but they went stright into a new episode of the Scotland based crime series "Rebus"

 

Home

 

If you arrived here from a search engine and dont see the frameset, click here to get to the front page.

The web site will not work properly if you dont.