The ITV News Channel is no longer broadcasting

Has anyone heard anything more about Crown Castle planning to add a second new channel to each of it's muxes.

It was first mentioned early summer, soon after E4+1 and Men and Motors arrived, with More4+1 and ITV4 expected to get the slots.

I expect now ITV News will time share with ITV4 for the next few months, but if ITV win the slot on the CC mux and it's functioning by February, by the time "CITV" debuts, ITV News may have a new "24 hr" slot (until the launch of ITV5!).

Also states that ITV NC budget is £3.5million. Is this correct? How the hell can they possible hope to compete with Sky and BBC on this budget?

It's difficult to work out a figure for the amount that News 24 costs because it uses resources that other BBC News departments would be using anyway. If Nick Robinson is standing in Downing Street for the 10 o'clock news and then does a report for News 24, has that cost News 24 anything? Half the cost, shared with the Ten? That situation is repeated throughout news - engineers would be in the news centre anyway, the MCR would be staffed... so you can see how any figure could be seen as inaccurate because it depends on how you count it - and there is no definatively right way to count it.

ITV News a necessity

Dropping the ITV News Channel would be a false economy. The 24-hour news service has often shown its rivals how to get the most from rolling news

Chris Shaw
Monday October 31, 2005

If you owned some prime property on the high street and you wanted to make money rather than offer a public service then you would probably turn it into a casino or an amusement arcade rather than a library.

This is the dilemma currently facing ITV bosses as they decide what do to do with a piece of prime digital real estate on Freeview currently occupied by the ITV News Channel.

ITV has four channels on Freeview - ITV1, 2 and 3 and the News Channel. Tomorrow it is launching a fifth channel, ITV4, and there is nowhere to put it. What's more, ITV's satellite berth on Sky will not be ready for another week, so something definitely has to give.

It's an awkward one for ITV because shutting down news operations does not look good at any time, particularly in a year when ITV News has restored its reputation and competitive edge with some really great scoops. However, in purely commercial terms the case for keeping the ITV News Channel going is a tough one to make.

Despite huge improvements in the past couple of years ITV News still trails behind Sky News and BBC News in both ratings and quality. Even if the running costs are a fraction of those of its rivals, the cost of keeping it on Freeview (estimated current price roughly £8m a year) is hard to justify when it has attracted just 0.15 % of all multichannel viewing so far this year.

Sky has just pumped around £30m into the rehousing and relaunching of its news operation and the BBC has declared that News 24 is now its priority and that we will be seeing a lot more of best journalism and best talent on News 24 first.

In this climate ITV could simply run up the white flag and get out of rolling news or it could pick up the gauntlet and take on the BBC and Sky even more aggressively.

I think there is a good case for having a go rather than throwing in the towel.

First of all, ITV News needs a 24-hour newsgathering operation, with or without a 24-hour news channel, so some of the savings are illusory.

ITV has done a very good job of integrating the three main elements of its news operations - network, regional and rolling - delivering big savings to ITV in the process.

The satellite trucks, camera operators, producers and reporters that work for rolling news also supply ITV1 network and regional programmes.

If the ITV News Channel goes then ITV network and even regional news will need to be compensated or they too will suffer.

Secondly, ITN (40% owned by ITV) is very dependent on ITV's 24-hour news operation to support its other news supply contracts notably for commercial radio and Channel 4 News. It also needs it for new commercial activities such as news services for 3G mobile phone and BlackBerry subscribers.

If you are in the news supply business, having a 24-hour operation is arguably a necessity, not a public service luxury.

Finally the ITV News Channel is a valuable component of the British TV news ecology. It was the ITV which showed the BBC how to utilise existing talent and resources to maximum effect on a rolling news service. It was ITV which showed Sky News the potential value of appointment-to-view programming, such as the Alastair Stewart hour, which incidentally won him the RTS news presenter of the year award.

With moderate investment over the next few years ITV News could continue to be a significant player in rolling news and help keep both the BBC and Sky on their toes.

So what is the likely outcome? ITV could pull the plug completely or possibly go for a compromise keeping the ITV News Channel alive on Sky and cable. This would be tantamount to a stay of execution since virtually all the ITV News Channel's audience growth is on Freeview. It currently has nearly twice the share of all viewers on Freeview as it does on Sky.

Another possible compromise would be for ITV News to share ITV4's slot and run for 12 hours a day.

The decision ITV bosses take - probably in the next 48 hours - will not only determine the future of around 50 ITV News Channel employees but also send out a clear signal of the true value ITV places on its news services.

ITV News Channel clings on to Freeview
Paul Revoir
31 October 2005 14:03

The ITV News Channel has been given a last minute reprieve on the Freeview platform but will have its hours slashed in half.

With ITV4 launching tomorrow night, executives were faced with dropping either Men and Motors or the 24 hour news channel to make way for it.

ITV only has five slots on the platform and already airs ITVs 1, 2 and 3.

Men and Motors, which loses the least money of the two services, has been allowed to remain and the 24-hour stream of ITV News Channel will be dropped. It will now air for 12 hours a day in the downtime of ITV4, which airs from 6pm.

However the deal cannot be a long-term solution because ITV has already committed itself to launching its new children's channel in February using ITV4's daytime capacity.

Speculation continues to grow that the ITV News Channel, which still runs on Sky and cable, could now be axed altogether. It has a programme budget of £3.5m a year is predicted to continue to lose money for some time. Conversely Men and Motors is expected to break even next year.

The move comes after months of wrangling about the decision, which had seen ITV chiefs consider running the news channel in a quarter-screen format.

An ITV spokeswoman said that no decision had been made yet.

ITV4 launches tomorrow on Freeview and on NTL and will be previewed on Sky tomorrow night in the Men and Motors space, before it launches on the satellite platform fully on 7 November.

ITV has yet to tie down a deal with Telewest for the channel.