ITV 'mulls sale of Freeview slots to Virgin'

[BGonaSTICK]

ITV is reportedly discussing the sale of some of its Freeview channel slots with Virgin Media. Broadcastnow.co.uk said the talks came as ITV re-evaluated its digital channel strategy.

According to sources contacted by Broadcast, ITV has shelved earlier reported plans to launch a movie channel in the slot once occupied by ITV Play, and then ITV2+1.

Virgin Media is due to launch its free-to-view Virgin 1 channel in the autumn but its Freeview position is restricted to an 8pm to 6am slot. By using the ITV slot the channel could be available 24 hours each day.

Broadcast sources further suggested that the current ITV2+1 channel could replace kids channel CiTV.

[wod]

looks a good idea as ftn isn't all that good of a channel and needs replacing with something as the programs are all from bravo or living tv anyway and the +1 channels are taking up valuable space on the platform


channel compression needs to be looked into also to see if/how more channels can be added or made longer hours

[Analoguesat]

Nah - what FreeView actually needs is some of that "valuable spectrum" that the treasury has its beady eyes on in the hope of a big money dividend handing over for tv broadcast use. (Remember what happened with the 3G licences about 5 years ago)