ITV to charge for HD channels as presenters face longer hours

Unveiling pre-tax profits of 97m, it announced plans to start charging for some of its offerings – high definition versions of its digital channels ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4.

Despite a return to the black, ITV1's share of TV viewing continued to decline in the first six months of 2010 and for all the ITV channels.

The broadcaster unveiled its five-year "transformation plan" following the signing of star names Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley to relaunch the channel's breakfast show as Daybreak – and Jonathan Ross from the BBC.

Chief executive Adam Crozier said: "One of the things we are doing is in finding our presenters like Adrian and Christine, is getting them to work much harder, in the sense that they're both joining to do the breakfast shows but they will be doing other shows for us as well.

"Adrian will do football for us and Christine is lining up for some presenting work in light entertainment in peak. We will be getting people to work very hard for us when we think they can deliver great audiences.

"In the end that's what being a commercial broadcaster is all about."

Asked if there will be more star name signings, Mr Crozier said: "I am sure there will be others."

Yesterday ITV confirmed that its pay-TV strategy would include high-definition versions of its digital channels on Sky – with ITV2 HD, ITV3 HD, and ITV4 HD becoming part of Sky+HD's subscription package of channels this autumn.

The announcement came as ITV1's share of total viewing fell by 5 per cent to 15.9 per cent while share in peak hours fell by 2 per cent. Total share of viewing for all ITV channels together was down 2 per cent at 22.7 per cent.

Coronation Street's share of viewing was down 5 per cent on the previous year but it remained the highest-performing soap on any channel in the first half of the year, with an average audience of 9.7 million, up from 9.5 million.