CW
Charlie Wells
Moderator
Taken from the Media Guardian...
So it looks like we will be seeing a closure of Men & Motors in the near future. Presumably channel 38 would then be used for the new childrens' channel if that happenned. As for ITV looking to buy Flexitech I really hope that doesn't happen.
Quote:
ITV boss advises caution over Flextech
Chris Tryhorn, City correspondent
Wednesday September 7, 2005
ITV boss Charles Allen said he was interested in buying the Flextech channels but expressed doubts about whether the sale process is genuine.
He said that ITV had registered its interest in the assets - including Living TV and Bravo - which are being touted to bidders by cable company Telewest.
But he sounded a cautious note on the auction, which has been treated with scepticism in some quarters and viewed as a way of advertising the value of Telewest's content business ahead of its near-certain merger with NTL.
"My own view is that I'm not convinced that they are actually going to sell the asset and that it's an elaborate evaluation exercise," Mr Allen said.
"If something was truly for sale we would definitely look at it, but I'm still not convinced it's for sale... there's a process in place and we have registered to be part of that process."
As well as its own channels, Telewest also owns half of the UKTV venture with the BBC and earlier this year took full control of the Sit-up network of shopping channels.
Other groups interested in Flextech include BSkyB and RTL, the owner of Five, which would like to use new channels to kickstart a multichannel strategy.
Tweaking the ITV profile
ITV is refining its own strategy for the multichannel environment by tweaking the profile of its family of channels, Mr Allen said today.
ITV2, which relies on a mix of movies, entertainment and spinoffs from ITV1 shows, is to become "younger and more female" when young men's channel ITV4 launches in November.
ITV4 will show some of the sport programming that has until now been screened by ITV2, while golden oldies offering ITV3 is to cater for the affluent ABC1 audience.
A children's channel is being launched in the new year and will occupy the same bandwidth on Freeview as ITV4, taking up the daytime slot between 6am and 6pm.
As for lads' channel Men and Motors, it will be broadcast side by side with ITV4, but the network's boss said that ITV would examine a potential format clash.
"Men and Motors is part of that transitional period. Yes, it will be available when ITV4 is up and running but we'll be looking at branding and content in the changes going into 2006. We're looking at what's the best way to optimise the strategy. "
Mr Allen also said today that ITV would be interested in bidding for live Premier League football if the European commission breaks up the rights into smaller packages. At the moment Sky has all the rights for live football.
"If the rights are packaged in an appropriate way we would have an interest."
"Everybody in the industry has been asked for their input. But it's very much in the EC's hands, they are driving the process."
As for a long-mooted takeover of ITV by foreign investors, the chief executive denied there was any threat.
"There has been no interest from any American players in the company whatsoever."
Chris Tryhorn, City correspondent
Wednesday September 7, 2005
ITV boss Charles Allen said he was interested in buying the Flextech channels but expressed doubts about whether the sale process is genuine.
He said that ITV had registered its interest in the assets - including Living TV and Bravo - which are being touted to bidders by cable company Telewest.
But he sounded a cautious note on the auction, which has been treated with scepticism in some quarters and viewed as a way of advertising the value of Telewest's content business ahead of its near-certain merger with NTL.
"My own view is that I'm not convinced that they are actually going to sell the asset and that it's an elaborate evaluation exercise," Mr Allen said.
"If something was truly for sale we would definitely look at it, but I'm still not convinced it's for sale... there's a process in place and we have registered to be part of that process."
As well as its own channels, Telewest also owns half of the UKTV venture with the BBC and earlier this year took full control of the Sit-up network of shopping channels.
Other groups interested in Flextech include BSkyB and RTL, the owner of Five, which would like to use new channels to kickstart a multichannel strategy.
Tweaking the ITV profile
ITV is refining its own strategy for the multichannel environment by tweaking the profile of its family of channels, Mr Allen said today.
ITV2, which relies on a mix of movies, entertainment and spinoffs from ITV1 shows, is to become "younger and more female" when young men's channel ITV4 launches in November.
ITV4 will show some of the sport programming that has until now been screened by ITV2, while golden oldies offering ITV3 is to cater for the affluent ABC1 audience.
A children's channel is being launched in the new year and will occupy the same bandwidth on Freeview as ITV4, taking up the daytime slot between 6am and 6pm.
As for lads' channel Men and Motors, it will be broadcast side by side with ITV4, but the network's boss said that ITV would examine a potential format clash.
"Men and Motors is part of that transitional period. Yes, it will be available when ITV4 is up and running but we'll be looking at branding and content in the changes going into 2006. We're looking at what's the best way to optimise the strategy. "
Mr Allen also said today that ITV would be interested in bidding for live Premier League football if the European commission breaks up the rights into smaller packages. At the moment Sky has all the rights for live football.
"If the rights are packaged in an appropriate way we would have an interest."
"Everybody in the industry has been asked for their input. But it's very much in the EC's hands, they are driving the process."
As for a long-mooted takeover of ITV by foreign investors, the chief executive denied there was any threat.
"There has been no interest from any American players in the company whatsoever."
So it looks like we will be seeing a closure of Men & Motors in the near future. Presumably channel 38 would then be used for the new childrens' channel if that happenned. As for ITV looking to buy Flexitech I really hope that doesn't happen.
Sky forcibly lose the rights to screen premiership football, ITV (or any other terrestrial channel) picks up the rights