If ITV Play was a family pet, then it’s fair to say that it would be a rather annoying Yorkshire Terrier. Yapping away in the corner and biting your feet, you realise that ol’ Yorkie is passed his best and in fact quite ill. The only sensible thing is to put poor old Yorkie out of its misery by a trip to the vets to send him to Dogri-La.

This needlessly wordy introduction is my way of saying that ITV are sticking the boot in on the dismal ITV Play channel. What will they replace it with?

The announcement that ITV Play is going to be scrapped means that a replacement is needed, and it looks like the new channel will be ITV2 +1.
The broadcaster has said it was a commercial decision and came
following a review of its use of spectrum. I’m not sure what that means, but I can safely assume that it doesn’t mean that they’ve been sitting around playing Horace Goes Skiing and Jet Set Willy.

Now all this news that they are to put a bolt through the brain of ITV Play is not strictly true. As a channel, it is most certainly dead, but it will continue to
exist as a programming block aired overnight on ITV1 and ITV2.
The change will occur on Thursday March 15.

According to insiders, a new channel is expected from ITV within the
year, with a movie channel one of the options currently being looked
at.
An ITV spokeswoman stressed that the decision was not linked with the
ongoing independent review of ITV’s interactive processes and
procedures by Deloitte.
A statement from the broadcaster said: "Following the first stage of
this review, on the basis of the information available, including
Deloitte’s findings, ITV is satisfied that these shows are being
operated in accordance with the Icstis and Ofcom codes." [Mof Gimmers]