Channel 5 May Seek To Move News For Home & Away

It is understood that Channel 5 has written to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) asking for permission to reschedule its 6:00pm news programme to make way for Home & Away. The station recently acquired the rights to the Australian soap from ITV, which currently screens the series daily at 5:05pm, although C5 will still not officially confirm that it has signed a deal..

The proposal may meet with some scrutiny at the ITC if C5 plans to reschedule the news to before 6:00pm. This is because the channel has a commitment written into its licence to provide a flagship news programme inside peaktime hours, which run from 6:00pm to 10:30pm.

A spokesperson for the ITC confirmed that it has received a range of proposals from C5, covering various issues. Due to commercial sensitivity the ITC will not make public current consultations until after any changes have been agreed upon. However, the spokesperson did confirm that if Channel 5 were to be considering moving its news programme outside peaktime, the Commission would need to be convinced that the changes were in the viewers’ best interests.

Channel 5 declined to comment, saying only that a proposal was currently being considered by the ITC. Further announcements are not expected for a few weeks.

Channel 5: 020 7550 5555 Independent Television Commission: 020 7255 3000