The Independent Television Commission, the British television regulator, has officially granted British Digital Broadcasting Plc with the three licenses it requires to launch Digital Terrestrial television services in the UK after the European Commission gave the deal its blessing. The licences are for an initial 12 year period, renewable for another 12 years subject to scrutiny by the ITC or the so-called super regulator which may replace it. However the EC demanded that British Sky Broadcasting Plc, a one-time joint partner in the consortium now jointly owned by Carlton Communications and Granada (CI No 3,189), reduce the length of its exclusive deal to provide programming from seven years to five. The move will likely see raised eyebrows at NTL Inc, the company which was pipped to the license by BDB largely on the back of sports and movie content from BSkyB. However a spokesperson for BDB said the group never intended to extend BSkyB’s deal to provide content beyond seven years. BDB plans to launch its package of 12 basic channels and 3 so-called premium channels in Autumn 1998 with programming from Carlton Communications Plc, Granada Group, British Sky Broadcasting, the British Broadcasting Corp and Flextech.
á
