Chris

IIRC Lost was pulling in well over 3 million on Channel 4, and when it went to Sky it hovered around the million mark, which is exactly where most shows of that type sit in Sky’s ratings. I seem to recall at the time thinking that all the billboard publicity they did when they poached Lost for season 3 suggested they really thought they had a good chance of significantly increasing their subscriber base off the back of it, but the data suggested it had little or no effect.

That aside, you make a good point; those broadcast slots are ITV’s most lucrative. Advertisers pay top rates to get into the commercial break in Coronation Street entirely because of the show’s ratings and audience share. If ITV can’t broadcast new episodes of Coronation Street then it has to replace it with something that is guaranteed to be as popular. If they package it correctly then classic episodes ought to do it.