Bye Bye ITN?

According to this media guardian.

Basically in an interview taken from the new book by veteren ITN journalist Robert Lindley, Charles Allen has said what his plans are for the ITV News Contract currently with ITN....

'Basically we - ITV plc - currently own 40 per cent of ITN. Either, in the remaining years of the contract, I will be able to buy the other 60 per cent and then will own the company in its entirety or, at the end of the licence, we will not contract our news with ITN. We will undertake to produce our own news in-house.'

In House service? The way I see it is that from a financial point of view (and that's all ITV seem to be talking from nowadays), it would surely be easier to buy ITN outright over the next 3 years, perhaps buying 20% a year, so that they would already have everything set up for them, rather than having to create something new of their own!

The way I see it is, if they bought another 20% share then I'd say it was safe to say that they will buy the rest over the next few years, or alternatively they could start selling shares!

Oh dear, poor ITN, i do hope that ITV stick with ITN, I mean it hasn't been going well for them, Five dropped them and if ITV dropped them then ITN would only provide news for Channel 4 if im correct. I always did think that ITV would just buy out the rest of ITN, but if they did, would they still provide the news for Channel 4?

That of course would be up to Channel 4.

I understand ITV's point of view though, especially within this other article saying how all of the big American broadcasters would never be able to imagine what it would be like to take their news from an independant.

But surely it would be easier to buy up ITN, wouldn't it?

Where would they put the news at the London Studios?

I don't think Channel 4 would have the first say in this. If ITV were to buy out ITN, then the ITV News Division (or whatever they decide to call themselves) may not want to provide news to any outside organisations. Of course, if they decide that they do want external work, then Channel 4 would have a say.

So we could finaly see BBC News on both S4C and now Channel 4!!!

ITV wholly owning ITN? Hmmm. Back to where ITN started in 1955, then...

Charles Allen is a complete idiot, he has already ( or is in the process ) of destroying ITV's core values, ie. the regions. And now he ( and his team obviously ) want to drop ITN. How can they build up an in - house service similar to that of BBC News, it would take years.

Maybe they should just do what they want, and drop all regions and news service, and fill our screens with a load of rubbish like they usually do. Sorry if somebody doesn't agree with this, but I'm sure I have summarized what most people are thinking.

The extract from the book that appears in today's Observer - referred to in the news piece above - can be read here:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1396408,00.html

I don't think that ITV really see the Channel 4 news as competing with their news bulletins, and would probably be happy to maintain it, even if ITN became ITV in-house.

Five has more potential to take viewers from ITV1.

would the BBC be prepered to give C4 news?

I'd be amazed if C4 went to the BBC for their news provision.

It would be more likely to see ITV buy out ITN and have it doing exclusively ITV News, and see Channel 4 develop their own in-house service.

There's always the chance that ITV will divide ITN into two divisions - ITV and C4 - and give C4 the chance to buy out their half, I suppose.

Surely not?

I thought that the whole point of Channel 4 is that they DON'T make any programmes themselves, they just commision/broadcast (etc) them?

Have you ever seen "A Channel 4 production for Channel 4" written on an endcap? No!

They are a broadcaster for showcasing indies' productions.

If they were to start making their own news, it would be the first "Channel 4 production" EVER! So, I think it's UNlikely.