Series 5 commissioned and filming soon, Blethyn says

Watched Miss Brenda's clip on "Lorraine" and she said they are going to begin filming series 5.

Of course series 4 is just beginning to be aired.

Before we go over the moon about it, though, I'm looking for more information about this new ITV Encore subscription channel that was recently announced.

ITV will have a subscription channel under the SKY family and the news release said they will be offering all of their top-drawer drama like "Vera" on this new channel--and adding more with even bigger "stars."

Does this mean no more "Vera," "Endeavour," "Downton Abbey" and other of the ongoing high rated dramas on ITV1? And what about the additional episodes of "Foyle's War?" Will those go too?

What's going on here? How is this going to work? None of the news material I've seen specifies if these dramas are all being moved over under a subscription SKY format onto the new ITV Encore channel--or if they are going to be shown on both. But showing on both seems like an own goal for them. They want profits from their new pay channel.

The channel begins in 2015. Therefore, I surmised the renewal of "Vera" into a series 5 was very much part of wanting to be sure they had a series of "Vera" to premiere when this pay channel goes into effect. Otherwise, it might have followed the usual format--see how the ratings are then renew.

But they didn't. So sounds like they are rushing all of their best dramas to get them in for the 2015 ITV Encore start.

Hope I'm wrong. But this is a seachange for ITV. I've been watching ITV and its predecessors for decades--all the great dramas of our time. On ITV, not on subscription.

Oh well, guess "free" tv is gone--and everything that's any good is going subscription. Or is it? Am looking for more info on this ITV1 future.