ITV Sales: ITV announces launch Of ITV3

Before everyone stops reading this in expectation of sheer boredom, there's an interesting point to be gleaned from this news story press release. Let's take a look at some of what ITV3 will be offering:

• ITV Classics

• Catch-ups of popular ITV1 programmes

• Themed nights and new commissions

Sounds familiar? It does if you remember the early days of BBC Choice, since that channel originally offered catch-ups of popular BBC programmes, theme nights, specialist series and archive programming, and despite a lack of budget did so with flair and imagination.

It seems that ITV3 will largely be repeating the same formula as the original incarnation of BBC Choice, albeit with a bigger budget and (presumably) less innovation, but the key point from this observation is that ITV obviously feels that these basic concepts are commercially viable in that they will pull enough viewers to attract advertisers and make it all worthwhile.

So why was the original incarnation of BBC Choice abandoned? The appointment of Stuart Murphy signalled a shift in intention for the channel away from providing specific services towards targeting a specific audience, and since then the channel has become BBC Three which is aimed at "young adults" (technically 25-34 year olds) in such a manner as to gain approval from the government.

However it's arguable that the BBC would have been better with its limited resources providing a channel that benefits a large number of licence fee payers in unique ways instead of worrying about catering for a certain sector of the (already well served and often discerning) audience with a compromise product that is often inferior to terrestrial channels. It will be very interesting to see ITV3's long term audience figures (and direction) for this strategy and how this reflects on the BBC's output as a consequence.