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By editorial@silicon.com, 1 May 2002 13:30

COMMENT So ITV Digital has finally curled up its toes. Subscribers have now lost all their paid for channels and many will be wondering whether they'll get back the money they've already stumped up. As many as 1,000 call centre staff will be clearing their desks and looking for work - many in areas where the call centres have been the major employer. Massed ranks of creditors and angry shareholders will be rounding on the administrators. While few of these aggrieved parties can claim genuine surprise at its failure, they must all want somebody to blame. Here we bring you the prime candidates. The football clubs
Just to add insult to serious financial injury it's worth considering whether the Nationwide League clubs - claiming victim status - are really free from blame. Did their mothers never warn them about the dangers of greed? Club chairmen must have known the sum they were originally offered for broadcast rights was massively unrealistic - but then no businessman ever got rich saying "You're offering us too much - we'd take half that". You can't fault the clubs for keeping schtum and hoping the cash didn't dry up - but it did. At that point more serious consideration should have been given to the lesser amount put before them pre-administration. There was always a feeling that the 'good times' weren't going to last forever. Nationwide League clubs offering Premiership wages can certainly be accused of naivety, probably even stupidity. But the real blunder on the part of the football clubs seems to be a failure to sign on all the right dotted lines - threatening to undermine any future legal action. Blame rating 3/10 Rupert Murdoch
Very few people cross the Aussie tycoon successfully and he probably hasn't lost too much sleep this week but he probably won't have wanted to see ITV Digital go under either. His most lucrative channels were all available via the platform, which was tipped to form the basis of a nationwide digital offering eventually replacing current analogue transmission, and as such Murdoch will have seen a massive pay-day in the not too distant future. Digital terrestrial will now go back to the drawing board and Murdoch will have to once again get his foot in whatever door opens next. ITV Digital was forced early on to increase charges for Sky content after BSkyB upped its prices. Similarly the two companies failed to reach agreements over ITV content going out to Sky's far more sizeable subscriber base - which would have boosted ITV's ad sale potential. Murdoch's existing position always looked too much of a mountain to climb for ITV and looks a major stumbling block to any future entrant. Blame rating 4/10 Marco Polo House?
ITV Digital isn't the first pay-TV firm to come a cropper in the Battersea offices overlooking the Thames. BSB went under before being consumed by Sky. The omens certainly aren't good and there will probably have to be some pretty heavy-duty Feng Shui-ing before a new tenant can be found. Blame rating 1/10 The government?
Point-scoring is the order of the day with members of the opposition suggesting the government should have stepped in to prevent the demise of ITV Digital. Certainly if Blair is to keep his promise and turn off the analogue signal by 2010 then more should have been done to ensure the start made by ITV in getting digital terrestrial television into people's homes was secured and built upon. But what could have been done? At a time when the government came in for criticism for raising extra funding for the NHS a rescue package for an ailing television company would not have proved popular - especially in election week. Perhaps if Murdoch's march to dominance could have been checked early on then a newcomer to the market might have stood a fighting chance but then hindsight is a wonderful thing and it's worth remembering the foundations of Murdoch's broadcasting empire were laid under a different government. Blame rating 3/10 ITV Digital?
The demise of ITV Digital will doubtless be recorded by the coroners as 'death by misadventure'. The company can point the finger any which way it chooses but the blame lies fairly squarely on its own shoulders. The crucial factor was the money owed to football clubs. It took a massive gamble on forking out for Nationwide League football and paid well over the odds. Very few clubs in Divisions One, Two and Three ever play to a full house and most have very localised support - if people wanted to watch they could go to the game. Those voting with their feet previously were a warning about the numbers likely to vote with their remotes. Live televised football has become all about the Premiership in recent years. Sky has the rights to Premiership football - games with global appeal such as Liverpool v Manchester United. This is what viewers around the world want to see. It's where advertisers want to place their products. In short, it's where the money is. The only reason many people will have bought into ITV Digital is because of the platform - not the content. The opportunity to receive Sky's sports coverage and movies - and various primary channels - through an existing aerial and not have to put a dish on the outside of a house or run a cable up to the fourth floor of a block of flats was a genuine and necessary innovation. As such the company's best bet for recouping funds will be sharing technical expertise and infrastructure - but just watch the room clear when they start talking about programming. Blame rating 8/10