[tellyblues]

Almost like it's not a viable thing, you might say... CITV leaving weekday afternoons on ITV1 didn't create a vacuum for others to rush in to like axing News at Ten did; even back then when digital takeup was far from complete. It was perhaps a little bit premature, but not enough that anyone wanted to do anything other than follow their lead.

Five already had a healthy afternoon schedule and, after several misfires, so too did ITV1. There was no incentive to trade in those lucrative audiences for the far less lucrative (and far more rapidly depleting) childrens ones - especially after junk food advertising bans came in.

There was also the theory that children and young adults could get whatever they wanted online so conveniently almost all content aimed at those ages was abandoned. Curiously, make the same argument about cooking, interior design etc being available online and its different somehow.