BBC News | TV AND RADIO | Kirsty Young 'banned' from ITV

ITN newsreader Kirsty Young is understood to have been removed from ITV's news bulletins following her decision to return to rival Channel 5.

The "ban" on Young is understood to have been taken by ITV, which contracts out its news to ITN.

Young announced last week that she was to join Channel 5 - where she fronted the news from 1997-1999 - in the new year.

She will act as the channel's main news anchor on the 1730 and 1930 weekday bulletins and her return will coincide with a new look for Channel 5 News.

ITN, which also produces the news for Channel 5, would not comment about Young's disappearance from TV screens.

Katie Derham: Thought to be a likely replacement

Until she starts her new job, Young, 32, will have more time to spend with her eight-month-old daughter Freya and husband Nick Jones.

Having more flexibility to work and be with her family is understood to have been one of the motivations behind Young's decision to go back to Channel 5.

ITV is expected to try to find a replacement for Young, who was brought to the network two years ago after it won a bidding war with Channel 5.

Favourites to take over from Young are said to be ITN newscasters Mary Nightingale and Katie Derham.

Channel 5's "poaching" of Young from ITV can be likened to the networks' set-to over the Australian soap Home and Away .

ITV pulled Home and Away from the schedules last year after Channel 5 bought the next series.

The popular show was then off air for almost a year.


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