dutchman
Well-Known Member
ITV has confirmed its rumoured move into pay television with the launch of high definition versions of ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 exclusively on Sky.
Over the last three months, ITV chairman Archie Norman and chief executive Adam Crozier have been conducting a strategic review of the broadcaster to create a transformation plan.
Chief among their aims was unlocking more revenue streams away from traditional advertising, after the broadcaster recently endured one of the worst ad market slumps in living memory.
ITV has now reached an agreement with Sky to launch ITV2 HD, ITV3 HD and ITV4 HD exclusively on the subscription television platform.
The channels will be made available to Sky+ HD subscribers in the autumn, starting with ITV2 HD in October.
However, it's unclear at present whether the channels will also be coming to Virgin Media's digital cable service in the future.
"Our priority for the next 18 months is to make ITV a creatively dynamic and fit for purpose organisation while maintaining strict financial controls," said Crozier.
"We have made swift progress in putting together a very strong management team fully focussed on delivering a lean ITV that can create world class content, executed across multiple platforms and sold around the world.
"Over time we expect to move to a position whereby half of ITV's revenue base will be derived from non-television advertising sources and today we are announcing our move into pay television with the agreement to make HD versions of ITV 2, 3 and 4 pay channels on Sky."