William footage sparks TV row

Photo shoots of the princes have always been closely controlled

The row over media coverage of Prince William as he nears his 18th birthday has spread to include two major broadcasters.

The BBC and Sky News say they are unhappy with the arrangements for sharing video footage of the prince at Eton, which has been shot by a cameraman from ITN.

ITN's rivals are unhappy about the timing of the release - 1830 BST - coinciding with the start of ITN's Early Evening News.

We would normally expect equal treatment in these situations

BBC spokesman

The latest twist follows the Palace's announcement that it would be urging the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) to act over alleged intrusion into privacy, after the News of the World published pictures of the prince at school.

It also comes three days after the Prince of Wales's press secretary, Sandy Henney, resigned after being accused of mishandling arrangements for a Daily Telegraph photographer to take authorised birthday photos of the prince.

Press pool

Three and a half minutes of the ITN footage - including shots of the prince swimming, at work in his study and on a cookery course - are due to be released to all broadcasters next Friday.

While the BBC has been forced to put back its 6pm news bulletin to 7pm on that day due to Euro 2000, under normal circumstances it would have missed out on the opportunity to show the film until later.

A BBC spokesman said: "We are expecting several minutes of footage on a pool arrangement, and we are generally satisfied with the current arrangements.

"However, we would normally expect equal treatment in these situations and we have expressed our concern that, had we had our 6pm bulletin, we would have lost out."

Broadcasters are also unhappy about the fact that ITN owns the copyright for the unused material.

ITN replied by saying it had "no immediate plans to use it", and would need permission from the palace to do so.

Telegraph row

The palace now hopes ITN will help defuse the row by agreeing to handover copyright to the Prince of Wales - as Daily Telegraph photographer Ian Jones did last week in a similar dispute over official stills taken to mark William's birthday.

Mr Jones initially kept the copyright to all 10 pictures, which are due to be published in newspapers and magazines next Saturday, but later surrendered it to the Crown.

A spokeswoman for St James's Palace said it was disappointed that the News of the World had decided to publish the pictures of the prince at school.

Referring to its resort to the PCC, the palace said in a statement: "The privacy of Prince William and Prince Harry at school has always been of paramount importance to us and it is vital for us to reaffirm the principle that the two young princes, like all children, should be free to complete their time at school without interruption."