ITV TO CHARGE ITS VIEWERS £3
March 22,2009
David Stephenson
sundayexpress.co.uk[/align]
ITV viewers could soon be forced to pay £3 a month to watch their favourite shows, such as Coronation Street and The X Factor. A report from the broadcaster’s City bank, the Swiss group UBS, urges financially-strapped ITV “to act now” by switching from a “free channel” to a “pay TV channel” by using Sky and Virgin Media. The four ITV channels would then disappear overnight from Freeview. ITV1 would cease to be “Channel 3” and viewers wanting to watch ITV would be forced to take up a subscription with either Sky or Virgin.
The ground-breaking document, “The Pay TV Opportunity”, was released last week. The report estimates viewers would he prepared to pay £2.50 a month for ITV1, but only 50p a month for all the digital channels, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. It says the proposal could boost plummeting profits at the channel by 60 per cent in three years, turning around ITV’s fortunes.
There appears to be nothing the Government can do to stop ITV becoming a pay channel. Initially, ITV may opt only to transfer the digital channels, ITV2, 3 and 4 to see whether viewers are prepared to pay. ITV recently announced a staggering £2.7billion loss, reduced programme budgets and swathing job cuts. Another report has revealed traditional advertising revenue will be decimated within 10 years.
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If this happens I'll be surprised
