Itv american idol

To catch the American Idol episodes in Europe is almost not possible in a legal manner. Most of the fans of the show have to find recording of the show on some shady blog spots or peer-to-peer networks. The fans living in the UK do not have to bother anymore.

ITV prides itself to be the biggest commercial television network in the UK. They certainly try to make this concept a true statement. Currently they hold 15 licenses in throughout the UK, broadcasting analogue and digital channels alike. The current move of ITV, partnering up with BBC to broadcast free digital TV per satellite is good news for all non UK residents, sparking hopes that high quality content will finally be available without being scrambled. The project is called Freesat and broadcasts 80 digital TV and radio channels, which will be expanded to 200 by the end of this year. All information is available on their web site freesat.co.uk.

ITV2 did broadcast all episodes of American Idol season 7 and they are scheduled to transmit the next season when it starts in January of 2009. The premier four channels of ITV are being broadcast via the Internet as well, but only UK residents are allowed to watch the stream. People outside of the UK can bypass the limitation by using a fast UK proxy, but a fast working proxy is costing money.

The coverage of American Idol in the UK is an interesting move, since that the original Idol, actually an UK invention, the Pop Idol, was originally on ITV in 2001, with another installment in 2003. Further shows were not scheduled and the ITV concentrated on the similarly formatted Simon Cowell vehicle the X-Factor. The original Pop Idol established Will Young, the season one winner, as a superstar, he is still very much active and popular, his latest release scheduled to be released by the end of September 2008, titled “Let It Go”. To broadcast the American Idol was an almost predictable move by the network, because of the good contacts with the show’s creator Simon Fuller. The digital channel ITV2 was broadcasting every single episode two days after it was originally emitted in the US.

According to Wikipedia, the American Idol program is being broadcast to over 100 nations outside of the US, most of them time delayed. The satellite dish owners should note that the reception of ITV and Freesat outside of the UK is possible, but requires a big enough dish. The channels are available on the Astra 2D footprint and are using the same fleet of satellites covering the Astra 2 and Eurobird 1 transmissions.