ITV to sell / close Granada Digital Channels

So what?

"Currently" means sweet f*ck all in the media! There might be an announcement, say, next week, or even tomorrow saying that following an assessment they are going to close Plus.

Yes, they might have their late 2004/early 2005 schedule planned, but even if a decision to close the channel was made tomorrow, the actual act of closing it wouldn't happen within 3 seconds of that decision would it? There would be weeks or maybe months pass before the closure was implemented.

So the mere existance of early 2005 schedule plans proves nothing. If they, say, decided today to close the channel, the closure might not be implimented until, say, March 2005.

No - not ITV4. Think it works quite well to have BBC1,2,3,4 etc then ITV1,2,3 and Channel 4 , 5 etc.

Well im only passing on the information, I sort of know someone who works for Plus, and they say there is no truth in the rumours, and I think they would be the first to know if Plus was to close.

Employees being the first to know?

Don't bet on it.

Does it? Why is it right to have BBC 1,2,3,4, then ITV 1, 2, 3 and not a forth? Then channel 4 has 4, e4 and 3 film four's (or is it 4?), so that's 6 4's, what's one more going to matter?

It's only like having Sky Sports Xtra rebranded as Sky Sports 4.
Each numbered system is just to number up a network, it's nothing to do with any other network. The only other way to do it is to UKTV it and name every channel. Like ITV, ITV Extra, ITV Plus, ITV News and ITV Gold, but that may get more confusing!

No rule - just thinking it would set apart the commercial and BBC channels. Just sounds good, that all!

6 years ago, the department store which I worked at suddenly announced that they were closing down in 2 months' time. I found out about it from the local paper, the company made a press release before telling their employees anything.

No - if the employee has beyond a certain headcount, then there has to be a recognition of employee representatives. There is then a higher rachet point where the Employment Service have to be informed in advance of any redundancies being announced.

In order to just clese the place down, and walk away, brown envelopes have to be used. These, in effect buy back residual contractual obligations by entering into a compromise agreement with the employee. In all cases these will offer much more generous terms than statutory redundancy.

There is a golden rule that should be applied to all in the broadcast industry, even (especially) freelancers and managament. And yes, I am going to shout :

ALWAYS JOIN THE UNION.

Even if you never go to the meetings, but you should always try to go to some.