XDTV

XDTV was a Flarlandian digital television operator founded in 2000 by the now-defunct Unity Telecom. Regular services launched on August 1, 2000, in time for the Southgate Olympics. XDTV was a prototype of many IPTV platforms created worldwide in the years that followed.

History

Development and creation

In the late 90s, groups of technological resource and development at Unity Telecom proceeded to create the foundations of what would become XDTV. Unity was a Flarlandian ADSL pioneer, and XDTV was to create a relationship between these services and television.

In September 1999, the first XDTV trial was conducted in Wembley, followed by other large cities in the rest of the year. In December, it was announced that XDTV was going to launch in the summer of 2000. The August 1 date was selected in March 2000. Pre-subscriptions were made in July. The company said that it was going to have an estimated 200.000 subscribers in the aggregation of the seven cities it operated.

XDTV had a basic package, most channels were provided by IBC's cable and satellite business (at the time Cable Flarland and Flarlandian Satellite Television) as well as having a few in-house channels.

Commercial launch

As promised, XDTV launched on August 1, 2000. In an initial agreement, XDTV offered the IBC Digital base package, as well as four in-house channels. After a few weeks, more channels were added. The first event carried by XDTV was the Southgate Olympics.

Shutdown

Despite initial long-term promises, Unity Telecom decided to shut down the platform in 2004. A new, watered-down IPTV platform known as Unity TV was created in 2005, but not using the subscriber base of the former service.

XDTV was influential in the creation of new channels and services in Flarland.

Channels

XDTV carried the entire IBC Digital package at first as its basic service, known as the XDTV "Value Pack". The pack also included four linear channels and a variety of interactive and VOD services (see below):

• XDTV Next
• XDTV Sports
• XDTV News
• XDTV Ananova

XDTV Ananova was a 24-hour "companion" of XDTV News, in which it regularly broadcast news reports from the Flarlandian version of the now-defunct Ananova website, featuring a virtual newscaster. Orange owned a minority interest in Unity Telecom (15% during its existence, until the sale to Flarlandian investors in 2006) and Ananova was a UWeb page in Flarland, as opposed to an Orange page in Nashland. XDTV Ananova shut down on August 31, 2003. During its last months it interspersed its news bulletins with Flarlandian lifestyle programming. In late 2000, Channel 14 occasionally used Ananova for selected segments of its newscast.

XDTV was the first operator in Flarland to offer AXN in 2002, before the regional cable operators and the IBC twin companies, Cable Flarland and Flarlandian Satellite Television.

XDTV News shut down in January 2004. The other in-house channels shut down with the end of the service.

Interactive services

XDTV had access to the four main "red button" interactive services operated by the FBC, UWB, IBC and Channel Ten. There was also a wide array of on demand channels - over 20 at the time of its launch.