ITV's new Freeview Slot

Do we think anything is likely to appear on the new Freeview slot available to ITV from 1st April ?

This article from Media Bulletin, seems to indicate that ITV4 will launch on Friday, but that is exceptionally unlikely as we've heard no pre-publicity or anything.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/media/article/467574/freeview-users-new-channels-itv-channel-4-win-coveted-slots/

So, as the space becomes available from Friday, surely ITV won't want it sat vacant for too long. So do we think it very likely that Men & Motors might appear on Freeview this week ? Or is that not allowed ?

I think alot of people have mis-read the original articles about the channel available on Freeview, simply because they say it could be launched as early as April 1st, there has been no confirmation from ITV or anything, which gives months of notice before they launch a new channel.

I wouldn't expect anything more than an MHEG really, best bet is what someone said on Digital Spy Forum, is that to launch Men and Motors on Freeview and eventually morph it into ITV4.

Or maybe the suggestion of broadcasting the News Channel in the space is better. Thereby giving an existing channel back to the vast proportion of the country that are still unable to access it via Freeview.

What with an election coming up, getting the ITV News Channel back on Freeview sounds the best idea

The problem with that is that they can only do 6.00am-12.00am, but that wouldn't matter as ITV News Channel goes crap after 11.00pm anyway.

Are they actually switching back on yet? IIRC Central is supposed to have the NC back on now, though AFAIK nothing yet.

According to the thread on Digital Spy, there have been delays with the manufacturers of the new equipment needed to statmux ITV1 and NC on a regional basis.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1450307,00.html