Now Three is Five

So it’s happy fifth birthday, today, to ITV3. And a tip of the hat to ITV4 which is also celebrating – four years of service.

By way of a tribute, one-man OTT-updating machine Dominic Small returns with a history of ITV’s digital strategy. From ONDigital, to ITV2, there have certainly been ups and downs. As Dominic reminds us, the network’s nascent dabbles in the digital market weren’t very successful…

“ITV regional operators did dip their toes into the satellite pool quite early on, with mixed results. Many of the ITV franchisees of the time worked together to launch a new UK-based satellite channel with Europe-wide broadcast, though this pioneering venture – Superchannel – was not as successful as had been hoped and later ended up in the hands of an Italian firm, and subsequently the American broadcaster NBC, who dumped much of the UK content for US-produced output.”

For more, Read the feature »

New beat for The Bill

ITV has announced its twice-weekly cop show is to drop to one episode and get a new slot. Read more

Making the Grade

Once I would have been appalled at the idea of scrapping ITV, but not anymore. Read more

Talking the Michael

If anyone can sort out ITV, Grade’s the man. There’s really nobody else. Well, there is, but when Greg Dyke was asked about it the other week he reckoned Pol Pot had more chance of getting the job. Read more

“Here they come now, Norton and Tate…”

So Paul Jackson is ITV’s new Head of Entertainment, which is a good move I think because he’s clearly got bags of experience. Read more

An ITN production

Well, what better way to while away a Christmas afternoon than by wrapping a few last-minute presents, eating mince pies and watching the ITV News Channel implode. Read more

The real Trevor McDoughnut

Although for the past few years he’s been fronting an increasingly rotten news programme on autopilot, it’s still something of an end of an era to see Trevor McDonald reading the ITV News for the last time, as he did last night. Read more

Breaking news for Britain

So, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, the ITV News Channel has been axed, and apart from the unfortunate 25 people who will sadly lose their jobs as a result of this, who will really care? In fact, it says everything about the half-hearted nature of this channel that “only” 25 people will be out of work when the screen goes black at the end of January. Read more