ANT AND DEC - ANT AND DEC TAKEAWAY NEW DEAL

Ant and Dec have signed a new deal with ITV to keep them exclusively at the channel until the end of 2009.

The pair - whose full names are Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly - have been exclusively signed to ITV since 2000 and have hosted a number of hit shows for the channel, including I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

Paul Jackson, director of entertainment and comedy at ITV, said that McPartlin and Donnelly were "undoubtedly the nation's favourite TV presenters with an incredible amount of talent".

"To be able to continue working with them exclusively is an absolute delight and we’re looking forward to building upon existing formats and developing some exciting new ones over the next two years," he added.

Commenting on their new deal, McPartlin said that he was delighted to be extending it while Donnelly said that he was looking forward to "developing new, fresh and exciting ideas for the future".

The deal is reportedly worth about £30 million to the pair and puts them in a similar price bracket to the BBC's Jonathan Ross, who is said to be on about £18 million.