If this goes through it doesn't really make ITN look very healthy. No 24 hour outlet, losing the c5 news and being told by ITV we'll buy you or destroy you.
Did I miss the line in the press release where it said ITV would close the News Channel if it came off Freeview?
Yes in typical TV Forum fashion, lets ignore the press release and go off at a tangent into a generic rant, discussing something that isn't happening
If this goes through it doesn't really make ITN look very healthy. No 24 hour outlet, losing the c5 news and being told by ITV we'll buy you or destroy you.
Did I miss the line in the press release where it said ITV would close the News Channel if it came off Freeview?
Yes in typical TV Forum fashion, lets ignore the press release and go off at a tangent into a generic rant, discussing something that isn't happening
The ITV News Channel makes a loss.
It currently gets the largest share of its fledgling audience on Freeview and gets hammered by News 24 and Sky on both cable and satellite.
Removing it from Freeview would therefore remove most of its audience and advertising revenue.
Two choices- cut the budget (making a pretty poor channel even worse- continuing the self-perpetuating negative spiral) to control the losses or cut the channel (save face claiming that the money spent will be directed into improved national updates and regional news).
Did I miss the line in the press release where it said ITV would close the News Channel if it came off Freeview?
Yes in typical TV Forum fashion, lets ignore the press release and go off at a tangent into a generic rant, discussing something that isn't happening
I think people were simply suggesting what the future of the News Channel might be
if
it came off Freeview. Nothing wrong with that. And anyway, this news hasn't come about through a press release (from ITV), it's come from Broadcast, who aren't immune from getting stories wrong from time to time... I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Whatever your opinion on the ITV News Channel, it offers a good public service and is my personal favourite amongst the news channels, alot due to the fact that a number of the ITV newsreaders are more recognisable to those new to digital TV.
I've said for a long time ITV4 is offering nothing that couldn't be incorporated into the ITV2/3 schedule - or indeed Men and Motors, so it annoys me it's making way for that.
It was a slightly different scenario when ITV3 launched and temporarily pushed ITV News off Freeview - ITV3 was a real addition to the ITV family offering something ITV1/2 could not!
What it does raise though is the issue of companies being allowed to launch channels for the sake of it when they don't have the space.
OFCOM should be controlling this tighter, and personally I think ITV should be under obligations to include their news channel as part of their Freeview portfolio.
ITV wouldn't be allowed to axe it's news output on ITV1 in favour of a nightly mens magazine, so why should they get away with axing their News Channel in favour of a mens channel.
If Freeview was so important to the ITV News Channel they wouldn't have removed it from there for months.
You have to bear in mind it was removed so that ITV3 could appear on Freeview as soon as it launched. ITV3 was always going to bring more money in than the ITV News Channel, that is what all this is about of course.
I do agree with you though that two news channels are more than enough for the platform.
I do agree with you though that two news channels are more than enough for the platform.
But who (apart from the channel operator) can make that kind of decision? Who is to say that two news channels are enough or too many? If some authority were able to take this kind of control (like the RA do with local radio licences), perhaps we wouldn't end up with hundreds of terrible channels. I don't know how many shopping or quiz channels are available but however many it is, it's too many in my view! In the end it's a free market economy, and ITV will decide whether having a news channel or a more profitable entertainment channel is more important to them.
The MM issue
MM and ITV4 are basically aimed at the same market. True MM is a massive TV brand, very recognisable, but the channel is no-where near what it touts itself to be. How many young 18-35 men are interested in wall-to-wall New Zealand traffic cop shows? Or sitting through an hour of The Sweeney? This channel became so watered down when it hit Freeview it became virtually unrecognisable from its former self.
The ITV4 Issue
ITV PLC are literally throwing everything at their multi-channel aspirations. Their main aim seems to be to get as many channels as the BBC regardless of quality. They've rush released ITV4 and ITV Kids without really dealing with ITV2's problems and haven't really capitalised on the success of ITV3. And they consciously ripped off the "i" idea from the BBC for its interactive service.
The ITV News Issue
Taken off Freeview for 9 months, their news channel is part-live, part simulcast and part-endless repeat. Their pitch as "Britain's trusted faces" / "breaking news for Britain" fell flat on its face, as did their theatre of news concept. BBC showed that big isn't better, and Sky showed that big doesn't mean loss of atmosphere. Plus its politics, right-of-centre, and its graphics, yucky to put it mildly, and its presenters, Mark Austin in particular, lead this channel down the road of self destruction.
My verdict: Take ITV News off Freeview. Give MM its laddish edge back instead of making it ITV3 for middle aged single men. Make sure ITV4 lives up to its promises. Give ITV2 some decent programming.
And finally, a word for the ITVPLC fat cats: stop trying to play with the big boys without the money or the programming. Just cos BBC has 8 channels, and Sky has 20-odd, doesn't mean you have to.
I thought (and still assume) the plan is that Men and Motors will become ITV4 in the same way as BBC Choice became BBC3 - ie. the two won't exist at the same time...
Of course, there have been so many past predictions of ITVNC's demise that haven't materialised its difficult not to think it'll get a reprieve at the last minute and struggle on with an even tighter budget or even smaller audience. Channel shutdowns are always pretty depressing but even more so for a 24-hour news channel - remember the Ted Turner quote when CNN launched?
Quote:
"We won't be signing off until the world ends. We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event. . . . and when the end of the world comes, we'll play 'Nearer My God to Thee' before we sign off."