ITN has won back the contract to produce Channel 5 News, which has been held by Sky News since 2005, it confirmed today,

ITN, which originally launched the Channel 5 News broadcast in 1997 and ran it until 2005, will begin a three-year contract with Channel 5 in 2012.

The move follows a decision by Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell, which owns Channel 5, to put the contract out to tender last year.

Sky News didn't tender to renew their contract with Northern & Shell, following an agreement between the two to terminate the contract prior to its original December 2012 end date.

The new contract with ITN will see the appointment of a new editor for the programme, after current editor David Kermode announced in September that he would be joining ITN's morning programme Daybreak.

"ITN broke new ground and changed the landscape of news broadcasting by launching 5 News back in 1997," said John Hardie, chief executive of ITN.

"We are delighted to be working with Channel 5 again and we see the evolution of its news service as a major pillar of our output. This significant contract win reinforces ITN’s important role in the UK’s media landscape and reiterates our position as the pre-eminent producer of commercial television news."

Jeff Ford, director of programming, Channel 5, said: "Over the last six years, Sky News has provided a news service which has helped to place Channel 5 at the forefront of public service news distribution. As we enter our second year under new ownership and with recent boosts in ratings and overall audience share, we continue at pace as a competitive terrestrial broadcaster. Through this new deal with ITN, we have a partner which will help to take us into the next phase of our news distribution and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership."

ITN also produces ITV News and Channel 4 News.

Channel 5 was purchased by Desmond in July 2010 for £103.5 million.
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