Carlton And Granada To Up Investment In ITV2
Carlton and Granada are planning to increase investment in ITV2 in a bid to enable the channel to compete with Sky One for the position of Britain’s fourth commercial TV station.
Competition between the two channels will increase this week with the launch of the BBC’s new digital terrestrial platform (see Freeview Digital Service Will Launch This Month), which includes ITV2 but not Sky One. It is understood that the relaunch will take ITV2 into a million new homes overnight.
Analysts believe there is room for another mainstream commercial channel in the UK, after ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as the uptake of multichannel TV increases. The competition comes down to BSkyB’s entertainment channel, Sky One, and ITV2, which was created two years ago to show repeats and spin-offs from the main ITV channel.
Carlton and Granada, which are now in advanced merger talks (see
Earlier this week ITV2 announced plans to increase its broadcast time by 20 hours a week due to increasing demand for airtime by advertisers. The channel, which saw advertising revenue rise by 700% year on year during October, has also commissioned a range of new programmes in an attempt to strengthen its offering.
However, ITV will face tough competition from BSkyB, which recently recruited Dawn Airey as managing director of Sky Networks. Speculation suggests that Airey’s appointment is a key part of chief executive, Tony Ball’s, initiative to strengthen Sky One’s content offering (see Airey’s Departure Represents Coup For BSkyB).
It is understood that Freeview, the successor to ITV Digital, will add 1 million multichannel homes when it revives digital terrestrial television this week. The new platform will provide around 28 free channels for anyone willing to buy a £99 decoder box (see BBC And BSkyB Name Free-To-Air DTT Service).
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BSkyB: 0207 705 3000 www.sky.com
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