ITN Wins ITV News Bid

ITN has been confirmed as the winner of the contract to provide news to ITV from January 2003. As the current holder of the contract, ITN was challenged for the first time ever in this round of bidding, as the ITC gave the go ahead for the Channel Three News consortium, which includes BSkyB in its members, to compete (see ITC Decision Creates Competition For ITV News Provision For The First Time).

The decision ends the latest attempt by Rupert Murdoch to enter the arena of terrestrial news provision. An unsuccessful bid was made by him the last time the ITV contract came up, in 1996, and last year a request was made to allow Sky News, an established name on non-terrestrial platforms, to bid for this contract. The request was refused by regulators the ITC (see Fighting Over News Moves To Fresh Battleground As Sky Consortium Eyes ITV Contract).

The ITV network and ITN will now go into negotiations to reach contractual terms. Until the terms are reached, details of both of the bids will remain under wraps.

ITN: 020 7833 3000 www.itn.co.uk www.itn.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.co.uk

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