I'm a TV expert and ITV sale will be disaster for viewers - expect rising fees

While it is common knowledge that ITV have been struggling financially, no-one (except perhaps the odd city trader) expected the news that they are in talks to sell their channels to Comcast, one of the world's biggest media companies in a £1.6billion deal. Comcast already own some of the world's best known brands including Sky and NBCUniversal. I don't have enough of a word count to list them all here but suffice to say they hugely permeate the global entertainment industry - and even if you think you haven't heard of them you have most likely enjoyed their output at some point.

While at first glance this may appear a shrewd move for ITV, given the worldwide reach of Comcast, in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Do you like your ITV soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale enough to pay to watch them? Because that is a very real possibility. Comcast is also the third-largest pay-TV company in the United States and there is no reason to think they won't adopt that model with ITV - they already do it with Sky. And there is currently an ad-free subscriber option for ITVX, so the groundwork has been done.

The prospect of paying to watch something that has been free to view for decades really makes me baulk. But it's not just the soaps at risk. This would also affect ITV's drama output.

In recent years they have produced some fabulous and acclaimed limited series, such as Mr Bates vs. the Post Office. Would that incredibly important show have been as successful if it had been on a subscription service? Probably not.

Just look at Sky's drama output. They make a lot of shows, but unless you subscribe to them how many do you hear about? Ditto documentaries. They have made some award winning documentaries but you can't just head to their player and watch them as you currently can with ITV's output.

There is also the very real possibilty some soaps and favourite shows could be put out to tender to whomever comes in with the cheapest price. Obviously this can only affect the quality of the productions in a negative way.

Personally, I would rather spend all my money on jelly babies and eat them until I was sick than pay to watch ITV's daytime output, such as Good Morning Britain. But that is a real prospect if this takeover goes ahead.

However, that may not be an issue - Comcast are known for making sweeping cuts and streamlining companies. In mid-October this year they cut around 150 jobs at NBC news as part of cost-cutting measures ahead of a planned spin-off of its cable networks.

There is no reason to think that they won't implement some drastic cuts at ITV given the company's current financial status, which will no doubt leave long-standing stars of the broadcaster quaking in their boots.

Don't get me wrong there are plenty of shows ITV could lose and their Quiz channel feels like a pointless exercise. But even without Comcast's history any takeover would result in a "new broom sweeps clean" mentality which is always bad for viewers.