Clutching at straws here, but now ITV are part of the Freeview consortium (and Freesat) I'd hope they'd realise that event if they as a channel provider don't feel the benefits of having their own news channel, the ITV News Channel is deserving of it's place on Freeview and fits very nicely into the overall portfolio of channels.
Bottom line - if it doesn't make them money, it is difficult to justify to shareholders. ITV is no longer in the business of public service...
Clutching at straws here, but now ITV are part of the Freeview consortium (and Freesat) I'd hope they'd realise that event if they as a channel provider don't feel the benefits of having their own news channel, the ITV News Channel is deserving of it's place on Freeview and fits very nicely into the overall portfolio of channels.
Bottom line - if it doesn't make them money, it is difficult to justify to shareholders. ITV is no longer in the business of public service...
Very true. But what you must think about with DTT is that ITV aren't going to go out of their way to add a low watched News channel to onto DTT. There are 6 MUX's, 2 belong to the BBC, the one half ITV has is full, SDN is owned by ITV but all of the channels are leased out to Channel 5, S4C, Sit Up and Top Up, who are all on long term contracts.
ITV simply entered the News channel market at the wrong time, they entered it when BBC News 24 and Sky News are very well established. It took over a very low watched News channel, the channel remained poor until ITV News got a complete revamp, then it started to look that bit more credible. Plus it now got a better chance to exploit and for access to the Regions, with all ITV Regional News programmes in England and Wales becoming part of the ITV News Group.
If ITV gave the channel more time, a bit more money and promotion then there is a better chance of it succeeding, but if they're going at the current rate then ITV News Channel doesn't have long left, if they're interested about making a profit, they've got another thing coming. ITV can afford to run it at a loss. Give it 5-10 years and see how ITV plc is doing in that time, then decide, rather than changing the pattern to suit ITV plc every five minutes.
But from a business view you can see why ITV would rather have both ITV4 and Men & Motors, rather than just one of them and ITV News.
I guess then the possible saving grace of the ITV News Channel in the long term could be regional news.
If it remains on Mux 2, it is technically possible on Freeview (though I imagine there would be a considerable cost involved!) - and as well as being a unique selling point in the present, in the long term I think if ITV could use the News Channel as a way of getting regional news off ITV1!
I imagine it's more technically difficult with Sky and Cable.
It was one of the pledges ITV made in their unsuccessful bid for the old DTT licences - they planned to changes the ITN News Channel to ITV News then subsequentally introduce regional news on to the channel in the form of a prime-time 30 minute programme every weeknight.
Alternative you could have more shorter bulletins, and in presenter terms at least, it wouldn't take much to get a pretty much hourly service. The GMTV/Morning presenter could host hourly bulletins throughout the morning.
If one of the evening co-hosts does the Lunchtime bulletin, that covers the afternoon, and likewise if the other evening co-host does the late bulletin, that's primetime covered.
You could also have bulletins throughout Weekend afternoons, in between the lunchtime and evening bulletins.
Once again it all comes down to money - so someone needs to convince the bigwigs at ITV that if they invest in the news channel now, within a few years time they'll be able to replace their ITV1 regional news programmes with something that'll bring in much more revenue!
It's continuing beyond 17.30 today, which is progress.
When I tuned in just before 17:43 it appeared to go blank, however the ITV News sting played followed by ads. A vast improvement today with the ITV News Channel running until about 17.58, during of the ads.
Adding regional content to the ITV News Channel would be prohibitively expensive. You'd have to massively increase the number of satellite slots required if you required regional versions of ITV1 (for ad breaks if not for news - the advertisers pay for regionality) AND ITV NC. On DTT you'd have to pay for dual-presentation and contribution and or opt-out facilities. VERY expensive - and probably unjustifiable.
It is arguable that broadband/web based distribution is the way forward for local content - as you get it when you want it, on demand, and without the cost of broadcast distribution.
Adding regional content to the ITV News Channel would be prohibitively expensive. You'd have to massively increase the number of satellite slots required if you required regional versions of ITV1 (for ad breaks if not for news - the advertisers pay for regionality) AND ITV NC. On DTT you'd have to pay for dual-presentation and contribution and or opt-out facilities. VERY expensive - and probably unjustifiable.
It is arguable that broadband/web based distribution is the way forward for local content - as you get it when you want it, on demand, and without the cost of broadcast distribution.
Thanks for your input on this topic.
Obviously cost is the major factor, and your right about the broadband thing - ITV were very happy with the response to their recent trials of the ITV Local service.
Perhaps though if not full regionality, possibly doing a service for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland might be more workable, just opting out in the 30 minutes before the national bulletins (though again, cost is involved!) - though this is something the BBC be more likely to do. Maybe ITV could do a trial in Wales at least - just for me!
One thing I want to ask - would it be feasibly possible for ITV just to have one regional feed on satellite which can be accessed via ITV1 or the ITV News Channel.
By this I mean basically there is a network feed of ITV1 and the ITV News Channel, but each time they feature regional content they link to the ITV Regional feeds.
Obviously this would mean you couldn't have regional content on both ITV1 and the ITV News Channel at the same time, but if it's technically possible, it could save costs!
Next week ITV4 has UEFA Cup Football on Thursday from 5pm, so they'll be an even earlier cut-off.
Slightly off topic, but does ITV 4 on Sky 'share' with another channel, like CBBC/BBC Three etc?
I wouldn't have thought so, ITV have tons of space available on Sky, it might share when "ITV Kids" launches next year, but for now it's own it's own.
Though with NTL they take the DTT feed to ITV4 and during the daytime it is blank like BBC3/CBBC and BBC4/CBeebies, where as they would usually put their own Channel Off Air caption.