ITV companies Carlton and Granada are hoping a complicated deal with the Football League will draw a line under the long running dispute that followed the demise of ITV Digital - the football clubs were the biggest losers when the digital TV company went out of business depriving the clubs of the millions promised for match screening rights. The new £6million deal, which gives ITV the rights to match highlights, includes some compensation for the loss, though Carlton and Granada still claim they never guaranteed any ITV Digital deal and as such are not technically liable. Aside from bringing an end to legal wranglings between ITV and the football clubs the deal also requires soccer chiefs to stop publicly criticising the TV companies.
Meanwhile ITV chiefs are having to deal with their latest problem - that of TV presenter John Leslie who faces numerous allegations of sexual assault (most, it has to be said, via the tabloids rather than the police). According to the Media Guardian ITV bosses met yesterday to discuss the future of the TV host. "A formal letter has been sent to John Leslie asking him to give his side of the story," an industry insider told the paper. "ITV chiefs want to hear what he has to say for himself before they commit themselves to any further action." In the meantime Leslie has been replaced on This Morning by another former kids TV presenter. Philip Schofield is joining Fern Britton on the show while Leslie takes time off for "personal reasons".