ONdigital Drops Carlton Channels For Discovery

Digital terrestrial broadcaster ONdigital is to drop the broadcast of two of Carlton’s pay-TV channels, Carlton World and Carlton Kids, to make way for two new Discovery channels.

The broadcaster, which is joint owned by Granada and Carlton, has signed a deal with Discovery for carriage of its Discovery Wings and Discovery Kids stations. The deal is key for ONdigital which has been keen to strengthen its channel line-up to compete more effectively for customers with rival broadcasters, particularly BSkyB.

The two Discovery channels are likely to be attractive to families with children as they offer a lot of factual and educational content. The channels will be launched on ONdigital on 1 February 2000, but are not exclusive to the terrestrial platform.

At the same time ONdigital will drop Carlton Select in order to increase the broadcast hours of the Carlton Food Network channel.

ONdigital: 0171 819 8000