Top Up TV
Top Up TV is a pay television service that operates in the UK on the Digital Terrestrial Television platform, more commonly known in the country as Freeview. After the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002 it was thought that pay television would not return to the platform, however on March 31st 2004 it returned with the launch of Top Up TV.
Unlike ITV Digital the service only offers a basic selection of some of the most popular channels (according to the BARB ratings)rather than the expensive premium sports and movie channels that were offered by ITV Digital. 10 services are broadcast, but only five of them are on air at any moment in time. The service is aimed at those viewers who do not wish to pay £40 (approx €60) a month to the likes of Sky Digital or the cable operators yet want a little bit more than Freeview offers, for example extended coverage of Big Brother, first run Channel 4 dramas like The OC and Six Feet Under, repeats of British television classics like Only Fools and Horses and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet as well as documentaries from Discovery and the UKTV Network.
During the first month on air the service gained some 20,000 subscribers despite only being avaible on legacy ITV Digiboxes, some 10% of its target subscription base.
Channels
On air time in brackets
- 14 - E4 (16:00 - 04:00)
- 17 - UKTV Gold (12:00-00:50)
- 25 - TCM - (17:00 - 05:00)
- 26 - UKTV Style - (18:00 - 23:00)
- 27 - Discovery Channel - (12:00 - 23:00)
- 28 - Discovery Home and Leisure - (06:00 - 12:00)
- 29 - UKTV Food - (10:00 - 16:00)
- 32 - Cartoon Network - (06:00 - 18:00)
- 33 - Boomerang - (05:00 - 12:00)
- 44 - Bloomberg - (05:00 - 10:00)
- 60 - Television X - (23:00 - 05:00)
External Links
