ITV had to fight for Casino Royale UK TV rights

Following yesterday's news that ITV had secured the UK television broadcast rights to the forthcoming James Bond film "Casino Royale", details of the battle for Bond has emerged.

According to Digital Spy, rival terrestrial UK TV station Channel 4 came close to winning Daniel Craig's first film as 007, with a strong competitive bid.

Channel 4 will be relaunching their subscription movie channel "Film Four" on Freeview (digital terrestrial TV) later this year and axing subscription charges. 007 was no doubt seen as a big ticket for the new station.

The deal marks the first for ITV's new acqusitions head Jay Kondola and also includes additional repeat runs of the entire Bond back catalogue.

"The Bond catalogue contains some of the most successful films in British film history," said Kandola. "I am delighted to have secured the first terrestrial screening of Daniel Craig as James Bond, exclusively for ITV viewers."

Unconfirmed rumours in the Irish press claim that ITV paid around £25 million GBP for the packaged rights.

Thanks to `Irish007` and `David P` for the alerts.

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