ITV scraps 24-hour news channel
Wednesday, 14 December 2005Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster, ITV, is to discontinue its rolling 24-hour ITV News Channel, which is operated by its partially owned subsidiary ITN.
The decision comes as a major blow to ITN, which lost its contract to produce news for Channel Five last year, and could result in the loss of up to 70 jobs, according to an ITN spokeswoman. ITN is 40% owned by ITV, with Reuters, Daily Mail & General Trust, and United Business Media each owning 20%.
The loss-making ITV News Service launched in 2000 and has struggled to compete with BSkyB's Sky News and BBC News 24. ITV chief executive Charles Allen has said he wants to buy the remainder of ITN, but if that is not possible he will allow the ITN contracts to lapse and produce ITV's news output internally.
ITV said it would reallocate £2m to other news areas, including a bureau in Beijing and expanded newsgathering in the north of Britain.
