I've been subscribing to ONdigital (now called ITV Digital) for about 18 months now- the first 12 of which having been with a Prepaid box, won in an auction on QXL for £35!

I've also got Sky Digital, and analogue satellite, so I'm in a fairly good position to make a comparison.

: : coverage
I live in Lincolnshire, and ONdigital's been available here from the Waltham transmitter for about 2 years, however- I still needed an aerial upgrade, costing £40 from ON, I don't know anyone who hasn't needed an aerial upgrade!
The upgrade has to be done by ON/ITV in order to get it for £40, as this price is subsidised. The engineer who fitted mine left the aerial leaning (because he wouldn't fit a new pole- he said he was only allowed to use the old one), and run cables under the middle of carpets- because 'he hadn't enough cable'- I wasn't happy about this!!
However, I can now get all the channels, with perfect picture quality.

Therefore, I wouldn't rate them highly on the aerial upgrade- but at least it works!

: : price
I paid £35 for a years worth of any 6 primary channels (I chose Play UK, UK Gold, MTV, E4, Sky One and Paramount Comedy/Nick.
You also get BBC One, Two, News 24, Choice, Knowledge, Parliament (audio only), ITV1, ITV2, C4, C5, Shop TV, TV Travel Shop (mornings only), and ITN News Channel (5.30am-9am)- free.
This was a great deal, by anyone's standards.
Normally, this prepaid deal costs £99, which I still don't think's bad compared to the Sky value subscriptions, which start at around £10 a month.

I like the ability to choose your channels with ON/ITV, instead of having to subscribe to a set package, as with Sky.

If you want to upgrade your Prepaid Package you can pay-

"All primary channels - £3 per month extra

Any one Sky Premium channel - £12 per month extra

Any two Sky Premium channels -
£16 per month extra

Any three Sky Premium channels - £19 per month extra

Any four Sky Premium channels - £21 per month extra

The Adult Channel - £6.99 per month extra

FilmFour - £5.99 per month extra

ITVsport - £6.99 per month extra

ITVselect Sport - £3.00 per month extra

Television X: The Fantasy Channel £7.99 per month extra
(minimum 12-month subscription period with initial one-off payments of £12)

Sky Premium channels are: Sky Premier, Sky MovieMax, Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2. When you choose Sky Sports 1 or 2 as one your Premium channels you get Sky Sports 3 free (Channel availability subject to coverage)"


The set-top box is yours on loan for free while you remain a customer- they do collect them if you leave.
Alternatively, you can pay monthly- by getting a free box- and agreeing to a minimum 12 month contract.
The prices-

"Option 1 - £13.00 a month
All available channels to add to your Free-To-View channels, plus 2000/2001 UEFA Champions League Football

Option 2 - £9.99 a month
Your pick of six available Primary channels to add to your Free-To-View channels, plus 2000/2001 UEFA Champions League football.

Option 3 - £6.99 a month
Simply choose your favourite Primary channel. This option doesn't include UEFA Champions League.

Premium Channels
Choose any of these Premium channels and add them to the cost of your Primary channel option.
Any one Sky Premium channel - £12 per month extra
Any two Sky Premium channels - £16 per month extra
Any three Sky Premium channels - £19 per month extra
Any four Sky Premium channels - £21 per month extra
The Adult Channel - £6.99 per month extra
FilmFour - £5.99 per month extra
ITVsport - £6.99 per month extra
ITVselect Sport - £3.00 per month extra
Television X: The Fantasy Channel £7.99 per month extra
(minimum 12-mont
h subscription period with initial one-off payments of £12)

When you choose Sky Sports 1 or 2 as one your Premium channels, you get Sky Sports 3 free."

That's enough about cost!

: : service

Customer service at ON is almost a lottery- sometimes it's great- others it's awful. Overall, people try to help- and they seem more helpful than Sky.
For example, my box broke- and they immediately arranged a replacement to be sent out- no questions asked- free of charge.

: : channels

ON has less channels than Sky or cable, however it does, in my opinion, have all the decent channels from Sky (with a few exceptions.
If you want to subscribe to film channels, don't choose ON though! Sky offer you Premier 1, 2, 3, 4 and Widescreen for the same price as just Premier on ONdigital!

I'm not going to list all the channels- but there is a full list at
http://www.dvbinfo.co.uk/itvdigital/chanlist.s html

(an unofficial ITV/ON Digital site, that I've found useful)

: : reliability

I'm not on my third ONdigital/ITV Digital box.
ITV D have always been friendly, and even paid me compensation when my box has broken!
My advice would be, avoid the Nokia set top boxes. Pioneer ones are the best, and failing that, Pace. Phillips are also very sloowww.

However, I know Sky boxes crash too- and Sky charge a call out fee if your box breaks!

: :interactivity

ON/ITV were the first to have digital text and games (although Sky's games are a lot better!).
With ON you get-
-BBC Text (BBC's digital text, obviously- with photos and all, very good...)
-ITV Text Plus (TV Guide and news)
-FourText (a guide to what's on Channel 4 and Film Four)
-Teletext (a digital version- loads of info)
-NTL TV Guide (simple guide to what's on TV that day accross all the channels on ITV/ON)
-E4 Interactive (Big Brother
- see separate review)
-TwoWayTV (two games- quite a lot of fun)
-ITV Info Channel (TV guide, competitions, offers, gossip and sports news).

However, these all seem to be quite slow.
There's no analogue text on ON/ITV channels!

: : others

ITV/ON offer full internet access through your TV for £5 a month (and 1ppm off peak, 2ppm peak). I don't use this, but I've heard that it's quite good.

: : overall

Choose ITV/ON if:

-you can't have a dish
-want to get digital TV upstairs, with Sky downstairs
-only want a few extra channels
-want internet access through the TV (Sky don't allow this)
-don't want to have to sign the Sky contract- making you keep your box plugged into a phone line for a year (are they watching you??)
-want relative simplicity

However, ON/ITV is a poor choice for some because-

-It lacks bandwidth, therefore it can never have as many channels as Sky
-Poor choice of film channels
-Picture quality is good, but not as good as Sky's
-Coverage may be an issue
-Set-top boxes can be a bit slow.

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Overall, I think it's a shame so many criticise ON/ITV because it does provide a decent alternative to Sky in areas without cable.

So who's better ON or Sky?
Well, probably Sky- but it really depends what you want.

Please leave any comments- this must be my longest op ever!