ITV have announced they are going to launch what they call a 24/7 participation channel called ITV Play which will feature loads of those shows that you get on late night ITV - you know, the dreadful-yet-worryingly-addictive phone in quiz shows. The new channel will launch next month on Freeview and then expand out to Sky and cable.
Talking of ITV, much media coverage yesterday for the somewhat predictable news that the commercial broadcaster's main channel, ITV1, has been losing lots of viewers. ITV1's ad revenues fell by £50 million in 2005 as the channel's ratings started to slide. But that ratings and ad revenue slide was compensated for by the growth of the network's other channels, in particular ITV2 and ITV3. So much so, overall profits were up 36% to £452 million.