Channel 5 axes 'OK! TV' after ITN news deal

[dutchman]

Richard Desmond's Channel 5 has axed evening entertainment news programme OK! TV, after the broadcaster agreed to shift its news contract from Sky to ITN.



Today, ITN announced that it has won back the contract to produce Channel 5's news programming on an initial three-year deal starting in early 2012.

The agreement, which followed a competitive tender process, involved 5 News returning to ITN where the programme launched in 1997 and was produced until 2005, when it shifted to Sky News.

It was made possible after Sky and Desmond's Northern & Shell group, which manages Channel 5, reached a deal to terminate the 5 News contract ahead of the original date of December 2012.

The new ITN contract will mark the end of OK! TV, which was introduced in February as a replacement for Live At Studio Five.

"OK! TV, our daily entertainment news show, has been in our early primetime slot since February," said a Channel 5 spokesman.

"Being part of our former arrangement with Sky News, OK! TV is set to come off air on December 16."

Desmond intended the show to dovetail with his OK! magazine and deliver an early evening ratings boost for Channel 5 with entertainment news and celebrity interviews.

However, the show was hit by various problems, including initial host Denise Van Outen walking out just days before the first broadcast, and having to be hastily replaced by Kate Walsh.