ONdigital reels in 110,000 U.K. subs

Digital platform above expectations, MTV set to join

By ERICH BOEHM

LONDON -- ONdigital has come out fighting in the battle for the U.K.'s digital TV market, revealing it has signed 110,000 subscribers since its launch in November -- above expectations -- and announcing a series of programming and marketing initiatives.

The digital terrestrial platform's numbers fall short of the 350,000 subscriptions that satcaster BSkyB reported for SkyDigital in February, but of those, only 120,000 customers were new, with the rest migrating from BSkyB's analog service.

Increase of 30,000

ONdigital picked up 30,000 of its total in March. Stephen Grabiner, ONdigital's chief exec, said the company's break-even point was 2 million subscribers, but would not predict when that target might be reached.

ONdigital is co-owned by Carlton and Granada, two of the big three ITV network companies. The company unveiled that ITV is producing 90-minute one-offs of the popular ITV soaps "Coronation Street" and "Emmerdale" for exclusive broadcast on ONdigital.

The platform also will air "Pavarotti and the Three Sopranos" and a live concert by girl group All Saints. Meanwhile, MTV will be joining ONdigital's lineup in July, and there are plans to carry Sky Sports 2 by late spring.

New models

Digital televisions incorporating ONdigital's access technology are poised to hit the shops. U.K. manufacturer Bush plans to have 100,000 such sets selling for as little as $800 by June.

ONdigital added that Philips, Toshiba, Sanyo and LG will launch their integrated -- but more expensive -- TVs shortly, with Philips beginning this month. ONdigital will produce a plug-in module for Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic, Samsung, Grundig and JVC TVs.