C4 and Five plan new digital channels

Digital Spy reporting a few things of interest today:

Five are bringing forward their plans for a new channel with the hope to launch by the end of the year. Doubt it though as they still don't know what it'll be, though they've narrowed it down to "general entertainment", "movies" and a "ITV2 style female-skewed lifestyle channel"

Whatever happens though they plan for the channel to include a block of kids programming under the "Milkshake" brand.


An even stranger rumour from broadcast - C4 are planning to launch a US acquisitions channel C4US, repeating shows such as Lost, Desperate Housewives, ER and LA Law. There is said to be concern amongst executives of the impact on E4 and More4, and personally speaking I find this plan very unlikely! I hope C4 will take the more cautious approach as they did with More4 rather than the ITV approach of "must launch channels".

Finally, bidding for the confirmed new slot on the CC mux is said to have reached £10m, with Five offering "crazy money". Other bids include ITV, Channel 4, Disney, Sit Up, MTV, Top-Up TV, Chart Show Group, At The Races, Ideal Shopping Direct, Travel Channel and Quiz TV.

I personally hope ITV get it to secure the future of the ITV News Channel (for now!) - and certainly don't want yet another shopping channel on Freeview (or Travel, or Quiz, or Music!)

So instead of "another" shopping, travel, quiz or music channel, you'd like to keep a News channel on there instead. (bearing in mind there are already 2, far seperior news channels than ITV...)

I think that ITV, C4, Sit-Up and Top-Up already have enough channels on Freeview - my vote goes to Disney or MTV - we need some 'meatier' channels on there to get people interested.

You're saying you'd rather have the ITV News Channel on there instead of a free version of the Disney Channel???

BTW Five has just been awarded a broadcasting licence for Five.2

As regards C4US; Channel 4 have to be very careful or they are going to fragment their audience too much. There is such a thing as too much choice.

...or too much US TV on UK TV....

ITV to bid more than £10m for a slot for a News Channel it doesn't really seem to care about, that only costs around £3.5m a year to run and won't make a profit anytime soon, if ever? Seems unlikely, doesn't it?

Financially I can't really argue with you - but my hope is ITV buy the slot for a possible future channel and fill it for now with ITV News - then reassess their digital strategy and decide enough is enough!

(And someone questioned why I wanted ITV News to get the slot - it's not I want another news channel, I want the ITV NC to stay. You may find Sky/BBC superior, but I find the ITV NC a much more accessible watch. I just don't like News 24, though I've found the new look Sky News more watchable.)


Talking about the cost - considering figures like £10m are being suggested, it suggests that any get-out clause Five may have with Top Up TV (or ITV with any channel on the SDN mux!) must be quite costly if they are willing to pay that much for a new slot.