Around one third of the staff employed on Five News face possible redundancy as the service prepares to move from Sky to ITN in February.
ITN insiders have stressed that the staffing changes are not cutbacks.
Press Gazette understands that Sky’s Five News team totalled 46 people and that under ITN 5 News will employ 47.
While Sky News charged around £9m a year for the Five News service, ITN won the contract back after quoting a lower fee. ITN has declined to reveal the cost of the contract.
ITN is building a new studio at Five News owners Northern and Shell and it is understood that it will introduce more multi-skilling – with correspondents often editing their own material.
An ITN spokesperson said: ‘We’ve always said the majority of Five News staff will be transferring to ITN and that the new service will launch with a comparable number of staff. We are currently in consultation with the workforce as we reconfigure roles on the service. As with any change, ITN does have different working practices to other news producers and we are supporting staff through this process.”
Sky News staff who are dedicated to Five News are covered by TUPE rules and so entitled to redundancy pay-offs if they are made redundant.
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