Bye Bye ITN?

also with regard to channel 4 is it not the point that they draw on the resources of the whole of ITN and if it was a seperate entity it would cost a lot more to produce. I cant see why ITV would have a problem with making news for channel 4 its just like granada making entertainment programmes for 4. channel 4 news and emmerdale are hardly in competition to each other for the same type of viewer.
As for Charles Allens comments about taking the news in house if they dont get control of ITN, all that does is put ITVplc in a stronger position when they attempt to buy out ITN's other shareholders, as the other shareholders know that if ITN didn't have the ITV contract their stake wouuld be considerably devalued.

I know what you mean, but that's not quite right - they used to produce "Right to Reply" and "Preview 4" in the early days of C4, both of which came from the channel's little studios.

Couldn't Reuters provide ITV's news?

It used to produce the GMTV Newshour up until around 1999/2000.

Why?
1. the whole point is that ITVplc want the news in-house, be it from ITN or a new set up.
2. reuters hold a 20% stake in ITN, cant see them saying we aren't going to sell ITVplc our stake but instead you can devalue your own 40% stake and have us supply your news.

So what he's basically saying to ITNs other owners is: 'sell to us or you'll lose your biggest customer'. It's a threat - ITV want their own news service, but don't want to start one.

Reuters et al will sell and they'll get their price for it

There's another issue that possibly moves the decision away form ITV and C4, and that is regulation.

Wiith ITN acting in effect as an independent (although it doesn't qualify as such) there's no issue with ITN pitching to C4. If ITN became a wholly iowned ITV subsidiary, and traded as an ITV division, then there may be disquet from the likes of Sky, other potential supplers (somone mentioned Reuters) or even OfCom were C4 to renew with ITN.

A possible compromise may be the creation on a new company C4 News Limited (C4NL), either as a subsidiary of the C4 Corporation, or as a tendered operation with indepentent producers and even ITV holding some of the shares.

C4NL would supply news content to C4, be allowed to trade idenpendently, but be able to draw on ITN (ie ITV News Division's) resources, and cherry pick from beureaux and agency news, but *NOT* ITV regional content or some domestic poltical stuff.

PS love the way that Sky do FIVE news in 16:9 - fantastic

not sure what you mean by that.
Is sky news not a wholly owned BSKYB subsidary? they experienced no problems with the Five contract, why would a wholly owned ITV subsidary experience problems with C4?

There is absolutely no reason why ITV News couldn't produce Channel 4 News!

ITV produce several programmes for other networks, including Countdown, You are What you eat, What the Papers Say, University Challenge and The Royle Family (ITV can produce great comedy believe it or not - they are just stupid enough to make it for the BBC!).

As with most ITV productions being branded a "Granada Production", it's likely ITV News Productions for Channel 4 would either be branded a "Granada Production" or more likely, still use the ITN brand for those purposes.

And what exactly would be the advantage of Channel 4 taking news from the BBC or Sky to avoid "ITV News" making their news programmes - they would still be using a news division of one of their main rivals!

Do ya think? I think ITV may be keen to ensure there news department is branded ITV News, viewers will see the brand at the end of the programme and relate it to the main ITV News service.

Also Channel 4 News' main rival is the BBC's Newsnight, so it would seem a bit weird, would it not ?

recently their last remaining in-house show (T4 continuity) was contracted out to the people who do popworld so they now don't do anything themselves.

I can't see why ITV would prevent C4 from using an in-house news division. I'm unsure whether the BBC would want to contract out atm as Newsnight is the rival, they have charter renewal coming up (urggh, they're producing for another company says the mail) and C4 news is (lets face it) v. left wing and the BBC might be worried about the usual crowd (Israel) kicking up a fuss about them producing it.

It's all about contracts - and C4 will be in a much better position than "ITV News / ITN".

C4 could insist that it's not produced under the name ITV News - with the very real threat of opting for Sky otherwise.