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You have to feel a bit sorry for the Independent Television Commission (ITC). If ever there were a no-win situation, it's the decision on who should replace ITV Digital. Which bid should it choose? The one from within the commercial TV family - from ITV and Channel 4? Or the one from the old enemy, the BBC (in tandem with the transmission company Crown Castle, and including three channels from BSkyB)?
The decision is crucial because the winner must rescue the entire digital terrestrial TV (DTT) platform, on which rides the Government's hopes of switching the whole nation to digital TV. And the bids are diametrically opposed - the BBC says the platform must be free-to-view, while ITV and Channel 4 say there must be pay- channels (to be supplied by a third bidder, headed by former Sky executive David Chance). The two other bids, rightly or wrongly, are widely seen as non-starters.
So which bid should it be?
Here I must underline the declaration of interest which appears at the bottom of this column. I am a BBC employee, but that is not the reason I believe the BBC solution is the right one. Indeed, I remained loyal to the concept put forward by ONdigital and ITV Digital long after wiser heads might have presumed they were doomed.
I now see that my belief in the ONdigital-ITV Digital strategy...