ITN News Channel launches

["Mark McCall" <mark@xxxxxxx>]

http://tvuk.diginews.org/cablestory.php?story=15

ITN News Channel launches

The ITN News Channel launched at 13:30 today claiming to be "the
world's
first fully convergent digital news channel ." The television channel
is a
joint venture with leading broadband company, NTL.

The television channel is available to ntl's analogue viewers on channel
45,
ntl's digital viewers on channel 123, 100% of the former CWC's digital
viewers, 100% of Telewest's digital viewers, digital satellite viewers on
channel 525, and, at breakfast time, digital terrestrial television viewers
on channel 48. More than 13 million people now have the channel in their
homes. By the end of next year it will be the most widely available
commercial news channel in the UK. It is free-to-air and entirely supported
by advertising.

The launch of the ITN News Channel marks the return of an ITN weekday
television news programme at 10.00pm, presented by former News at Ten
anchor
Julia Somerville. Andrew Harvey and Leyla Daybelge have left BBC News 24
and
Sky News respectively to join the ITN News Channel. Carol Barnes, one of
ITN
's most popular presenters, also makes a welcome return. Other presenters
include John Suchet, Daljit Dhaliwal, Ros Childs, Simon Vigar, Tristana
Moore and Rachel McTavish - all of whom already work on ITN news
programmes.

Also launched today was is the ITN News Channel on radio, on the national
multiplex Digital One. The digital radio channel transmits from 0600 to
midnight and offers all news, all the time - drawing on the resources of
ITN
Radio's 120 multi-skilled journalists and the most experienced rolling news
management team in the country. It is also available on SkyDigital channel
943.

The ITN News Channel is available as video and audio streams with text and
graphics on ITN's newly enhanced website itn.co.uk. On demand viewing of
individual reports are available on the website. The ITN News Channel is
also be offered as audio and text on Orange WAP phones (ITN was the first
news organisation in the world with a news service on WAP mobile phones),
and as video-on-demand via ADSL.

In a partnership with Psion and Unique Interactive, the audio service with
supporting text and web-style pages will be available direct to laptops at
the end of September 2000 from Psion's WavefinderT via digital radio data
capacity.

Chief executive Stewart Purvis said, "This is the first time in ITN's
45-year history we have broadcast news direct to the consumer as a
broadcaster in our own right - and 17 years since I first put together a
pilot for an ITN news channel. But it was worth the wait. Today we are
launching the world's first multi-media news service on television and
radio, Europe's first news channel to offer interactivity from launch, and
the best presenter line-up on any news channel in Britain."


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