Granada Secures Sponsor For ITV News Channel

Granada Enterprises has secured distance learning provider Computeach to sponsor a range of sports programming on the ITV News Channel.

The deal will see Computeach break bumpers run during the ITV News Network sports reports on Friday and Saturday nights. Branding will also appear on the channel’s Football Extra programme and on the half-hour sports bulletins throughout the night.

The sponsorship begins next month and runs until May 2004. It was arranged by Thomas Langshaw, account manager at Granada Enterprises and Adam Shoefield, managing partner at Smarter Communications.

Commenting on the deal, Langshaw said: “The sponsorship of theITV News Football Extra and the ITV News Network Sports reports give Computeach the opportunity to reach its target audience in an effective and cost efficient manner.”

ITV News Channel claims to have seen its adult audiences increase by almost 42% between January and September this year. However, the channel, which relaunched last June, remains someway behind Sky News and BBC News 24 in terms of its overall share of multichannel viewing (see Carlton And Granada Buy Into ITN News Channel).

ITV1 recently announced plans to move its evening news bulletin to 10.30pm next year after approval for the change was granted by the Independent Television Commission. The move is intended to re-establish a fixed timeslot for the bulletin and the head to head battle with BBC1 (see News At When To Return To 10.30 Slot).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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