ITV News to close by Jan 2006

ITV News to close by Jan 2006

	Published : Thu, 15 Dec 2005 12:05 By : Richard Owen Print this Story

LONDON: ITV News Channel said it will go off the air by end of January 2006, ending speculation about its future. The channel which has struggled against rivals like BBC News and Sky News gave in to commercial considerations.

The channel’s airspace on Freeview digital service was halved last month to make space for ITV4. Shutting down the service is expected to yield savings that would be reinvested in a new kids channel as well as in news bulletins on ITV2 and ITV3. It would also help fund the opening of a news bureau in Beijing besides strengthening regional news gathering network, improving media news coverage and covering more areas of north Britain.

The group said it had been losing almost £10 million a year since they bought the struggling 24-hour news channel in 2002.

The closure would also mean a loss of 60 - 70 jobs. Spokesperson Kathryn Holland said the closure is no reflection on the quality of the channel’s output, in fact, it was praised for its ‘high profile exclusives’ and in-depth coverage on many occasions in the recent past. However it did not succeed in raising viewership despite its best efforts.

The decision to fold up the service was taken after deliberating on the future of news. Simon Shaps, director of the ITV group said he could foresee a more viewer-driven market in the next five to ten years where viewers have a variety of different platforms, such as the current mobile phone news format. In such a market “viewers will want news on demand” he said.

He added that the group was preparing for such a market by investing in the required technology and were currently focusing resources in improving the news bulletins on the other ITV channels.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists’ broadcasting organiser Paul McLaughlin reacted sharply to the news. He said it is “a devastating blow for ITN staff in the run-up to Christmas” referring to the 60 or so staff at Independent Television Network which supplied programming to
ITV News.