ITV Digital facts

Launched 1998 as onDigital Funding �800m Subscribers 1.3m Break-even forecast 2003 23% of customers leave after a year �315m football deal

It follows the failure of administrators Deloitte and Touche to sell the digital television provider as a going concern.

The Pembroke Dock staff are directly employed by the Manpower agency, which will have to decide whether it can find alternative work for them.

The collapse of ITV Digital will put a number of Nationwide League football clubs in dire financial straits, as they will not get the remaining �178.5m the League was owed for broadcast rights.

ITV Digital was put into administration by its owners, Carlton and Granada, last month after it claimed it was unable to meet the cost of the Nationwide League contract.

Monkey has not been able to rescue ITV Digital

On Monday, administrators Deloitte and Touche revealed they were putting the company up for sale as a going concern.

But after failing to agree a timetable for a sale process with the regulator, the Independent Television Commission, they are now inviting offers for any part of the business or its assets.

It puts the future of 900 call centre staff at Pembroke Dock - and another 500 in Plymouth, south west England - in the balance.

Staff at Pembroke Dock are employed by the Manpower agency, which has a long lease on the site and may well seek another client to replace ITV Digital.

Christine Gwyther vowed a fight to save jobs

Christine Gwyther, Welsh assembly member for Carmarthen West and Pembroke South, said it would be devastating for the area if all the jobs could not be saved.

She said: "Today's news has been a blow - but we have to build on that and look to the future.

"I'm not prepared to see that centre go under."

Danny Fellowes, district secretary for the Transport and General Workers Union, said the situation remained unclear, but hoped that jobs could be saved.

"They are a very, very professionally trained workforce," he said.

"We're looking to do some lateral thinking to keep people in employment."

Tony Williams is confident the centre will stay open

Tony Williams, who works at the call centre, said everyone knew how important 900 jobs were in an area with few alternative sources of employment.

"We have families working there - we have fathers, sons, brothers and sisters.

"I have to be very very positive and say there is no way the call centre at Pembroke Dock will literally be boarded up."

Services provided by ITV Digital, which operates digitial terrestrial television (DTT) across the UK, have already been scaled back.

Cardiff-based SDN pulled the plug on ITV Select, its pay per view movie joint venture, on Tuesday when ITV Digital's administrators refused to commit themselves to further funding.

The pay-per-view movies service has already closed

Whatever happens to ITV Digital, customers will still be able to watch a range of free-to-air channels.

These include BBC Choice, BBC News 24, BBC4, ITV2, children's channels CBBC and CBeebies, and S4C Digital and S4C2 in Wales.

However, paid-for channels such as Sky Movies, ITV Sport and MTV may well disappear from their screens.

A spokesman for the Independent Television Commission (ITC) said if the pay-TV channels ceased to be offered, ITV Digital's licence would be revoked and re-advertised.