Could ITN News Channel rise from the ashes?

CNN have been partnering a lot of individual broadcasters in other countries to create localised news channels. CNN already have a deal with ITN over footage, perhaps we could see this being expanded into a partnership for a CNN/ITN UK news channel?

Doubt it - the current ITN management have had their fingers burned.

The only possibility is if new owners buy them over, and decide they want to give it a go. But the brand is a busted flush when it comes to news channels - they tried it as ITN, it didn't work, then they tried it supplying news to ITV, and it didn't work. It's unfair on the people who work there, but any news channel carrying those names now will have a whiff of failure about them before they even start.

I notice on the ITN website ( http://www.itn.co.uk ) there is a link to "Live News", which links to another service which advertises a number of services from ITN, including the "ITN News Channel", plus headlines etc.

I assume this is just an updated headline service, but can anyone get any caps of it?

I'm not sure it's quite correct to say that the original ITN News Channel "didn't work" or was a failure. It may well have not made any money, but what news channel does? I would be surprised if there was not more business foresight that you'd think, and that ITN started the low-cost channel with every expectation that it would eventually be subsumed into the ITV fold where more resources could be offered.

I agree. The original ITN News Channel offered something completly different with it's simple format of essentially news bulletins every 30 minutes - and I know at time's when you've got the same press conference on all 3 news channels, having an alternative that actually delivered the "news" would be welcome.

Whether it was failing when ITV took it over is debatable - all channels, not just news, take a number of years to break even (I've read some reports the ITV NC is actually now beginning to break even!) and I think NTL selling it's shares in it to ITV was more about the state of NTL than the ITN News Channel. After all, a company is only worth it's projected future income!

In 2002 it just made more sense for NTL to sell it's shares to ITV - and at the time it must have made sense for Carlton and Granada too. Anyone who thinks it's just since they became ITV plc that they've been concerned about profits is very much mistaken!

I read quite an interesting point on MediaGuardian that suggests essentially the ITV News Channel has become a victim of the success of Freeview - with the demand for space on the platform meaning commercially there was no other option for ITV.

Back to my main topic - the possible resurrection of an ITN News Channel - and I think the only way it'll return is if it can secure a Freeview slot for the long term. If ITN, rather than ITV, had owned the slot the ITV NC was broadcast on I doubt closing the channel would have been considered.

I think prices for slots at the moment means ITN won't be bidding for the next one (and possibly last before switch off) on the Crown Castle muxes. Our best hope is for Top Up TV (or even better, Sit Up TV) to go bust and for ITN to get a cheap cast off!

However, I wonder how feasible it be for ITN to launch some sort of interactive news service on Sky and Cable. It wouldn't be a news channel in it's traditional sense, but as ITN do have content going out online and on mobile 24 hours a day, I'm sure some sort of service (rather than channel!) could be made available on Digital Satellite at least.

You keep missng the key fact the ITNNC was itself on the verge of closure shortly before being bought out by ITV. You may also like to know that ITN also has to justify its decisions to its shareholders, and I'm sure they were relieved to be rid of the white elephant whilst still providing the content.

I wasn't aware of that. Is that on the record?

Yup the channel was on the skids during 2001 and 2002, they had to cut back, use reports mainly from ITV News, but also borrowed some from Channel 4 News and 5 News, at one point they were even going to draft in some ITV News presenters to save money but apparently Dermot Murnahagn (sp?), Katie Derham and a couple of others weren't happy to do this, though this was only rumour and never made it onto the ITN NC Screens.

Plus there was a Media recession at that point when major players such as Carlton, Granada and Channel 4 were losing money for whatever reasons, such as a drop in advertising revenue and paying over the odds for Football coverage. ITN was no exception on this, they were losing money for many reasons. One was they had to cut back on the ITV contract as Sky, UTV, CBS and Bloomberg apparently had put a bid together to get the ITV contract, ITN managed to get it back, but corners had to be cut by ITV management. Another reason was the launch of the ITN News Channel, it had its own reporters and what have you, it had to pay for carriage on Sky, On Digital and Cable, it also had many others things such as Web-streaming of the channel, being available on WAP, palm padfs etc it was slightly ahead of it's time, but it was shedding alot of money for ITN, so most of these services were cut, the only way this ITN still exists is on the '3' Mobile phone network where they provide News bulletins to users.

ITN would never start a News Channel again, simply because News doesn't make that much money for ITN, it's the Archive thats currently making ITN's profit, considering they operate the Granada (ie ITV) and Channel 4 archives. ITV is ITN's biggest customer so ITN has to do as much as they can to please ITV's and ITN's shareholders. The channel has been given five years to perform, it has failed, the shareholders have been patient over a troublesome five years at both companies, the channel doesn't bring in the viewers, so it is being closed down to save both companies money and to decide where else the money could be better spent.

The ITN NC never got the audience it wanted, which was the Satellite one, ITN NC always did well on Cable, as to be fair it was well promoted by NTL. Whilst the ITV NC did well on Freeview as it had a good slot on the EPG rather then being placed a few channels away from the major players.

Wasn't the concept from the start though that ITN could screen reports from ITV, C4 and five? Did the ITN News Channel have it's own team of correspondants originally?

It was only in 2001 when signing off by reporters on ITV changed from "ITN" to "ITV News" that it became more noticable.


Back to the wider issue about the possible reincarnation of the ITN News Channel - you are right that other considerations need to be considered.

At the moment ITV own 40% and before the ITV News contract is up for renewal (2008 I think) ITV either want to buy it out or they've said they'll create an in house news division.

It's all about IFs, and IF ITV go it alone I don't think the C4 contract alone will be viable for ITN's TV news operations - so the creation of a 24-hour News Channel may be a way to offset losses (I guess they'll lose money, but not as much as they would without it!). I think having the security of a 24-hour news channel would also help ITN when it comes to renegotiating future deals.

Not sure about that. News channels simply don't make money. They lose money. So I'm not sure how having a News Channel would offset losses for ITN. It is far, far cheaper to make a number of individual bulletins at set times throughout the day and resource and staff that accordingly, than it is to maintain a rolling news operation. Surely you'd only venture into a news channel-type operation if a) you were prepared to accept the financial losses, and b) had deep pockets!

The ITN News Channel lives on!

http://www.greengrass.tv/index.aspx?cgID=-1&vID=285&propID=98&dbp

It's nice to see it referred to again - it hasn't launched properly yet, so maybe they are waiting until friday.

I reckon the old ITN arrows look would have worked fantastically well with the new set - much better than the dark blue. Maybe someone could mock that up.

I really liked the look of the ITNNC - it had real pace - the music et al - just let down by a poor set.

It's a shame you seem to have to pay for that - but looking at that there are about six video feeds which could make a great Interactive news service on Sky Digital - just without the News Channel! Perhaps it could be linked to from ITV and C4.


Agree the ITN NC had a fantastic look and great music. Also agree about the set, but when you compare it to the sets BBC and Sky had in 2000, it wasn't that much smaller really! The original set, though plain, looked quite good - but I never liked it when it went to blue and red.

Repeating myself again from earlier in the thread, but the studio was never intended for guests really considering the concept of the channel.