Crown Castle have finally confirmed ITV as the winner of the first vacant channel slot on Freeview.

The official announcement came as the broadcasting space for the new 18-hour station opened up for the first time.

Peter Abery, CEO of Crown Castle, said: "This is good news for everybody involved: for Crown Castle because it has been able to take advantage of improvements in infrastructure technology and maximise the value of scarce DTT resources, for ITV because it is able to increase the number of platforms on which channels are available, and for Freeview viewers. We are also very pleased to have ITV as a channel customer on our multiplex."

ITV, who has paid a reported £5 million for the slot, is now expected to use it to launch a version of 'Men & Motors' later in the year. The broadcaster eventually plans to transform the channel into the male-focussed ITV4, in the same way Granada Plus was ditched in favour of ITV3.

"One of our strategic objectives is to grow ITV’s successful multichannel business and we are therefore delighted to have secured additional capacity on this platform," said ITV CEO Charles Allen. "We will now build on the tremendous success of ITV2 and ITV3 by expanding the range of our offering on the digital platform where our channels perform best."

ITV is likely to make an official announcement on its plans for the channel within a fortnight.