Own goal

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Football clubs threatened by collapse of ITV Digital

ITV Digital collapse boosts Carlton and Granada shares

From day one, everything about ITV Digital was a turn-off

League to meet ITV Digital in court

Dozens of famous football clubs pushed closer to extinction

NTL warns time is running out for refinancing as losses swell to £11bn

The collapse of ITV Digital throws into sharp focus the poor quality of the management of independent television, particularly Michael Green of Carlton and Charles Allen of Granada. All that is history, of course, useful only as raw material for business school students undertaking a case study in how not to run a media business. But it is at least worth recording the names of the guilty men.

What remains is a business opportunity for Rupert Murdoch that should serve the shareholders of BSkyB well. It will not, we may be reasonably sure, delight football fans, who may well end up paying even more to see their favourite teams play. The failure of ITV and the BBC to form a digital coalition has left Mr Murdoch with a powerful market position in digital television, indeed, rather too powerful a position for a plural and competitive market.

The most regrettable aspect of this turn of events may be the demise of a number of football clubs. The strongest league clubs will survive, although similar commercial pressures are beginning to be felt even there. Football clubs and their players will have to come to terms with the new commercial realities. The party's over.