ITV no friend of Joey

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has dismissed reports of wading into a British broadcast bidding war for Friends spin-off Joey. While the UK media has reported a four-way fight for Joey, ITV has stated that it is “absolutely not” involved in outbidding Channel 4, Channel Five and BSkyB for the upcoming series.

The rumour was sparked by a comment made by digital channel ITV2 during a presentation for London’s financial institutions yesterday. Referring to shows appropriate for the diginet’s 16-34 target demographic, ITV2 highlighted Joey as the right kind of acquired programme for its service.

Today Channel 4 declined to comment on the situation, while BSkyB neither confirmed nor denied its interest in the series, which has been ordered from Warner Bros by US network NBC.

The UK press has pegged Joey’s value at £100k per episode, bringing its price tag to £2.2m for the 22-part series. Distributor Warner Bros, however, is said to be looking for £550k per ep.