April 25 2002

ITV Sport Channel

ITV Digital's administrators have failed to find a buyer for the doomed TV channel and it will go bust, costing Palace and other Nationwide League clubs millions.

The majority of clubs in the league have budgeted on the promised TV money from the three-year contract signed last summer.

But ITV Digitial will be liquidated with its small amount of assets sold off. The Independent Television Commission has said it will now revoke ITV Digital's licence and offer it for tender. This is expected to take six weeks.

Free-to-air digital terrestrial channels such as BBC Choice, BBC News 24, BBC4, ITV2 will be available to viewers at the moment, but the Sky channels will be lost.

With Simon Jordan recently spending £3m on Ade Akinbiyi, Kit Symons, Curtis Fleming and Danny Granville, there will be some severe cost cutting and it's unlikely many new players will be be signed in the short term.

Lots of Nationwide division clubs could now go to the wall.