New Century And UKTV Put Case Against ITC

The ITC/Channel 5 hearing continues today; New Century Television, the BSkyB backed consortium this morning alleged that the ITC’s call to C5B to clarify its funding was as good as an invitation to alter their plan. Also, claimed Patrick Neil, New Century’s QC, when C5B added the £100m extra, they “assumed” support from their shareholders as the foundation for the increase. By ITC rules, this support should have been “confirmed”. To sum up, he reiterated the point that New Century should be awarded the licence in the event it is removed from C5B.

UKTV, the highest bidding consortium, is demanding a complete re-bid. In such a case, UKTV and Virgin should be allowed to revamp their programming in order to reach the quality thresholds, they said this morning at the Court.

This afternoon the ITC and C5B will speak.