[Blubatt]

Good question. I think the current way of naming channels is slightly messy, given that ITVBe and ITV Encore (as was) existed alongside ITV 2, 3, and 4, then there's CITV as well. On one hand, people know what each ITV channel shows without the genre-based name: We know ITV hosts bad reality shows and kids movies, and that ITV 3 is basically ITV Gold. But on the other hand, genre based names could work. After all, Granada and Carlton's former digital channels had genre based names (Granada Plus, Carlton World, etc.). And names like ITV 2 are, after all, legacy brands for a long passed point of presentation.

I don't think ITV will do it anytime soon, though. ITV is not Sky. Sky's change to name and genre based channels were done to put the Sky brand first. Also, Sky One stood out as a name for a while. Sky is a premium subscription product, and you pay to access the vast majority of Sky branded channels (Sky Arts and Sky News notwithstanding). Plus, they have the money to pump into changing channel names, and launch new channels whenever they want. ITV is a big company, but compared to Comcast-owned Sky, they're not on the same level. Changing ITV 2, 3, 4, and Be to genre based names is a lot of money into promotion, into new branding, into comissioning new programming. Sky can go by purchasing repeat rights.