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Alternative endings and previews of Coronation Street could be charged for viewing online, according to ITV chief executive Adam Crozier.

Crozier said today that although "we'll not go down the News International route" and put all online content behind a paywall, he wanted to look at "payment mechanisms" to see if viewers would be prepared to pay for ITV programming on the internet.

Speaking at the Royal Television Society international conference in London, Crozier added that ITV is starting to look at what could be charged for online, "whether for Coronation Street, looking at alternative endings, previewing certain things. We can test and learn from these things, we'll have to learn as we go along," he added.

Speaking after his session, Crozier set out the limits to any possible online charging strategy, saying: "ITV is free and things like Coronation Street are central to that strategy."

But when asked about putting alternative endings to storylines on the web and charging for them, he added: "Yes you might have different endings."

He was also asked by Steve Hewlett, chairing the session, if ITV wanted to reach further into pay TV, beyond high definition versions of digital channels such as ITV2, to which he answered "yes".

Crozier said ITV is "not interested in aggregators", adding that the broadcaster had been talking to US online TV aggregation service Hulu, but these discussions had now ceased.

Crozier said ITV makes 67% of its own shows, but if Emmerdale and Coronation Street were excluded that falls to just 16 or 17%.

He added that he wanted ITV Studios to make more shows for the broadcaster's channels, but only "on merit".

The Gaurdian