[DTV]

I remember the head of ITN around 2007 saying that the war between Sky News and the BBC News 24 was like watching  "two bald men fighting over a comb".
The audiences remain miniscule for the costs involved.

While news channel audiences per hour are relatively low, I'm not sure it's wholly fair to say the audience is miniscule relative to costs. Others will be higher, but the BBC News channel's cost per viewer hour is in line with the main BBC TV channels (and lower than some radio stations!). And, of course, it's important to remember that the channel's audience does accumulate - it's not the same few thousand watching every hour - BBC and Sky News' reach figures are something that many 'down ballot' channels would be envious of.