ITV movie channel to replace ITV Play?

ITV is considering launching a movie channel to replace outgoing gaming station ITV Play.

ITV Play was axed earlier this week for "commercial" reasons amid the ongoing furore over the fair use of premium rate phonelines in TV programmes.

The channel has today been replaced by a timeshifted version of ITV2 on Freeview - but this is only thought to be a temporary measure.

A spokesman told Broadcast that ITV was "still looking at various options" for the slot to ensure that it was "making the best use" of its capacity on Freeview.

The possibility of an ITV movie channel has been on the cards for some time: last year ITV4 controller Steve Arnell was charged with developing plans to launch such a station. Movies consistently rank amongst the most popular programmes on ITV's multichannel network, which also includes ITV3 and ITV4.