SDN Extends DTT Carriage Contract

SDN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITV, has announced the extension of its digital terrestrial television (DTT) carriage contract with the QVC channel until 2022.
Jeff Henry, Managing Director of ITV Consumer said: “SDN is delighted to renew its relationship with QVC. The contract extension underlines the on-going strength of the Freeview capacity market, providing for substantially improved terms for SDN, effective immediately, and longer term benefits for QVC including certainty of carriage on the UK’s largest digital television platform - Freeview.
"The new arrangements will also continue to allow SDN to share in QVC’s success as the market leading home shopping brand on Freeview.”
The original contract for the carriage agreement with QVC was signed with SDN in 2002 and was due to terminate in November 2010.
DTT multiplex operator, SDN was acquired by ITV plc in March 2005. It holds the licence from Ofcom to broadcast DTT channels over a specified bandwidth, and constitutes roughly a sixth of current DTT capacity.
Within SDN’s current capacity of up to 10 full videostreams, half is reserved under the 1996 Broadcasting Act for use by Five which broadcasts its three channels on DTT and sub-licenses the remainder of the capacity to Top Up TV.
The other channels carried by SDN are Price Drop TV, Bid TV, Nuts TV, EMAP radio (Smash Hits & Mojo) and Teletext Holidays.
QVC UK is the largest TV shopping channel in Britain with net sales of £331 million in 2006. It offers a wide variety of brand name products in apparel & beauty, jewellery, home innovation and home style. The channel broadcasts 24/7, 364 days a year with 17 hours of live programming each day.
(SP)