ITN has won back the contract to produce Channel 5 News from Sky with an initial three-year contract due to start in 2012.
Channel 5 owner Northern & Shell put the contract out to tender last year following its takeover of the channel. The contract was due to expire in December 2012.
Northern and Shell decided to terminate their 5 News contract ahead of the original end date meaning that Sky News did not tender for it.
ITN ran Channel 5’s news service from 1997 to 2005, when the contract was taken over by Sky News.
‘ITN broke new ground and changed the landscape of news broadcasting by launching 5 News back in 1997,’said John Hardie, chief executive of ITN. ‘We are delighted to be working with Channel 5 again and we see the evolution of its news service as a major pillar of our output.
‘This significant contract win reinforces ITN’s important role in the UK’s media landscape and reiterates our position as the pre-eminent producer of commercial television news.”
Following current editor David Kermode’s announcement in September that he was leaving to join ITV’s breakfast show Daybreak, ITN said a new editor of Channel 5 News will be appointed soon.
It also said that full details of editorial focus will be released shortly.
Channel 5 director of programming Jeff Ford said: ‘Over the last six years, Sky News has provided a news service which has helped to place Channel 5 at the forefront of public service news distribution.
‘As we enter our second year under new ownership and with recent boosts in ratings and overall audience share, we continue at pace as a competitive terrestrial broadcaster.
‘Through this new deal with ITN, we have a partner which will help to take us into the next phase of our news distribution and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership.”
Launch editor of Five News Chris Shaw made the decision to award the contract to Sky after he became controller of factual output for Five in March 2004.
Shaw rejoined ITN as director of ITN productions earlier this year after taking redundancy in September 2010 following Richard Desmond’s £103m takeover of Channel 5.
ITN said in a statement: “The new contract will see ITN produce distinctive news programming across the day from a talented and dedicated team. At the heart of the new service will be a bespoke state-of-the-art newsroom and studio developed by ITN to house the latest graphics, technology and desktop editing facilities. The operation will be based at Channel 5’s headquarters and connect with ITN’s central infrastructure and protocols.”
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