£13m Price Tag Put On ITV’s Sky Carriage

ITV’s deal with BSkyB to secure carriage on Sky’s Digital service is thought to be costing ITV £13m. Neither party would comment on the figure today, which is thought to have been the major sticking point in the long-running negotiations which led up to yesterday’s agreement (see Digital Truce For ITV And Sky). The money question is also thought to be holding up the process of putting ITV Sport on the Sky platform, with ITV asking for a larger financial guarantee than BSkyB is willing to put up.

ITV’s flagship channel, ITV1, became available to Sky viewers last night. Local services were available on 103, while in areas where more than one regional service would be available, these were made available on 963 or 964. A date has yet to be confirmed for when entertainment channel ITV2 will appear, but its carriage was secured in yesterday’s deal.

BSkyB: 020 7705 3000 www.sky.com ITV Digital: 0808 100 0101 www.itv-digital.co.uk

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