Business Diary: Crozier's run-in with the law

Poor old Adam Crozier. His colleagues rather dropped the new chief executive of ITV in it during the period before he took up his post.

In the run-up to starting officially at the broadcaster in April this year, he spent some time meeting many important folk in the television industry. So when did ITV choose to announce it had decided to axe The Bill, its long-running police series? On the very day Mr Crozier was due to meet its maker, Fremantle Media, of course. All very embarrassing.

Women drivers to pay more

Bad news for women drivers, who have for years been charged less for car insurance on the grounds that all the statistics show they're less likely to have an accident. The European Commission has long had a bee in its bonnet about this, and now the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled that pricing insurance on the basis of gender is discriminatory – and therefore illegal.

Next battle for Apple's iPad

The battle to capture the lion's share of the tablet PC market continues. Apple is in there of course with the iPad, while BlackBerry has high hopes of its new device, launched just this week. And then there's Next. No, you didn't read that wrongly: Next, better known for its clothing and soft furnishings, has for some time offered electricals through its Directory mail-order business and now it is launching its own tablet PC. Available in the Christmas Directory for a very reasonable £180, could this be the real iPad killer?

Time to move to rainy Newport?

The super-posh estate agent Knight Frank yesterday published a lengthy report about Newport, this year's venue for the Ryder Cup, which majored on its attractions for property investors. The Welsh town does indeed have plenty going for it: it's cheaper than Cardiff and has been extensively redeveloped. But yesterday's downpour, which was beamed around the world by the cameras there for the golf, presumably didn't enhance its reputation.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk