Charles Allen Leaves ITV

I think they just have directors of different genres across all the ITV Channels. For example, Paul Jackson is Director of Entertainment and Comedy, Alison Sharman is Director of Factual & Daytime and so on...

Charles Allen probably didn't have control over the day-to-day commissioning process but he would certainly decide what departments got all the money - and this is why it all went tits up, caring so much more about money than their programming, and indeed their viewers. I know being a commercial channel ITV do need to have money at the forefront of their operations but you have to balance it with providing what your customers (the viewers) want. Get that balance right and not only do you reel them all in but you get all your money too if the programmes are good enough - it's a 2 for 1 deal if you can get it right.

Just saw the report on the ITV News, someone interviewd said that they need to get back to water cooler programming. ie Talked about TV. They showed clips of Coronation Street and Inspector Morse. They also said that not everyone likes Reality TV and ITV needs to get back to producing good dramas etc. This has always been their strong point to me., if you look back through the years.

Finally, someone realizes.

Thing is, there doesn't seem to be any imagination within ITV anymore, or maybe they just don't want to use that imagination. If they were to start a brand new show, develop it and see how things go, at least that would be something. Jumping on the reality tv bandwagon is at best a short-term solution and at worst, well...Love Island.

I think this is a turning point for ITV and hopefully good things will come out of CA's departure. On the face of it, the commissioning team at ITV look very strong - let's see how they go from now on, maybe without pressure from above. I'm still not convinced about that Shaps guy - he looks to me to just be after money money money too - but maybe, just maybe, CA was pressurising him too and now he can get on with his job as Director of Programmes effectively.

Good luck ITV.

Best thing to have happened to ITV in years. Here's a man who knew nothing whatsoever about running any sort of media company, let alone the nations biggest terrestrial commercial broadcaster. What a complete mess he's made of it and he has made no secret of the fact that he was in it for the money! Indeed with its fair share of dreadful 'reality' tripe, the cutting back to the core of ITV news and its terrible 'on-air' presentation, things can and must surely only get better (cue that song)
Step forward someone please with a passion for the industry and push aside these so-called experts who quite frankly haven't got a damn clue!!

Thought you might want to read this.

Allen: I take responsibility for ITV's woes
Dan Wootton
6:00pm
Outgoing ITV chief executive Charles Allen has accepted responsibility for the problems at the network in his first interview since stepping down.

Speaking to Alistair Stewart of ITV News, Allen said: "The role of the chief executive is to take the bullets in the creative community when it doesn't go well and step out of the light when things go well. That's how you get people to take risks and this game is all about taking risks.

"You never get it right all the time. The lesson I've learned in 15 years in television is that that's my job as chief executive – to ensure that we encourage people to take as many risks as possible. When it doesn't go well it's down to you, when it does go well it's down to them."

He added: "I wish my successor every success because I've invested 15 years of my life and 10 years as chairman and chief executive in this business. I think we're well placed [for a multi-channel world] but we need to have the discussions now about what we want ITV to be in the digital world."

ITN, which produces ITV News, has made clips of the two and a half minute interview available to rival broadcasters. Highlights will air on the ITV Evening News at 6.30pm.

A pretty decent report now on More4 News.

2004-03-16



2006-08-08



Why does somebody who has done an excellent job have to quit?

2006-08-09

According to The Guardian,




And again from The Guardian, apparently contradicting the words of Sir Peter Burt, Mr Allen stated,



According to The Scotsman --


Charles Allen deserves a knighthood at the very least for his services to commercial broadcasting and making Madam's Thatcher's policy a reality.

And according to The Independent



Clearly the best type of candidate to replace Charles Allen, somebody capable of turning around the stock price, which has dropped yesterday by 3.25p to 98.25p, ahead of today's first-half results, would be somebody from a financial institution, such as a bank, or maybe an investment house.

Is there a ressemblance between these two characters?

http://www.guardianlies.COM/Granada%20TV/Charles%20Allen.gif

http://www.mavis-crafts.com/Patterns/images/ITVMonkey1.jpg

For the suggestion of a change of name for ITV, since digital is the future, why not rename it "On Digital"?

Does anyone know where I can happen to find the video of the Charles Allen interview?

Here's an interesting piece from Broadcast.

Allen: I'm not sorry
Paul Revoir
8:00am
Charles Allen insists ITV1 is not a channel in free-fall but regrets the length of time it took to create single network.
ITV chief executive Charles Allen, who resigned this week, has insisted he is not leaving behind a broadcaster in decline.

Despite ITV1's catalogue of woes over recent months, Allen said he believed the channel was not in free-fall but in "transition" from being an analogue business to a digital business.

He told Broadcast: "I don't see ITV1 as being in decline. People need to understand ITV1 is in transition and that where we are in the digital world, we actually perform pretty well. Despite what people said about our multichannel strategy we came in and created the number one multichannel proposition. More people are watching our family of channels on Freeview this year than last year and you have to start seeing ITV as more than ITV1."

Looking back on his time at ITV, Allen defended his reputation for cost-cutting and job losses. He said he was forced to make unpopular decisions, notably during the ITV merger process, but that they were the right ones.

"I think back to my early days as a junior person in the steel industry. If they had made some tough decisions then, we might have had a steel industry in Britain."

His biggest regret of the period was how long it took to create a single ITV, going through two acts of parliament and three very substantial regulatory reviews.

He said: "I wish that we could have done that quicker, because if we had, ITV would be in even better shape."

Allen, 49, claimed his decision to resign had not been "a flash of light" and that he had always planned for a new chapter in his career in his 50s.

He said: "Now is the right time to hand over the baton to somebody else and I have got a very strong team in place. It is a good time to start the next chapter in my life. I will be working through to January, then I will give thought to what I want to do next. I enjoy the broadcasting industry but I am not ruling anything in or anything out."

The ITV chief, who officially steps down on 1 October, will stay on at the company advising interim chief executive John Cresswell. Allen claimed he was proud of the achievements ITV had made on news, saying the company had "strengthened the credibility" of the service. He added: "When I look at our current coverage of the Middle East crisis versus the BBC's it makes me particularly proud."

Allen admitted that whoever replaced him would need to be able to handle constant media scrutiny.

He said: "I think the role of the chief executive should be to stand and take the criticism and when things work well to go off-stage and let creative colleagues take the limelight. But that's just the way that I have played it."

He added: "The choice of successor is a matter for the board and one I won't be involved in, but whoever has this job must have a thick skin."

he should be sorry, he ditched regional continuity, closed down studios, let trashy programming come to the fore, launched a channel to make people gamble 24/7, luckily for him people watch itv2, itv3, and itv4.

ITV3 is more like what the main ITV channel should be like. Here's what the industry thinks about what ITV needs, another article from Broadcast.

Industry Reaction
10 August
ITV's next boss: what TV execs think the network needs

"ITV needs a leader who realises that to satisfy shareholders you have to satisfy the public, and you can only do that with quality programmes. Charles Allen was great from the shareholders' point of view in delivering a more secure relationship with Ofcom. I think Ofcom was very soft on ITV and I am disappointed by some of the victories he had as a broadcaster."
ITV political heavyweight Jonathan Dimbleby

"What ITV needs is vision. Whoever is appointed is going to have to persuade three all-important groups of stakeholders to stick with the company. They need to persuade the advertisers not to use CRR to squeeze ITV, or they may risk killing the goose which lays the golden egg. They need to persuade the shareholders that there's enough of a future in ITV that they shouldn't be expecting huge returns in the short term. And the staff who work for ITV need to be re-energised by someone with vision, which I don't think is happening at the moment."
Former Carlton Productions managing director and writer and broadcaster Steve Hewlett

"It would be useful for the new boss to come from a television background. I think they've certainly got to have sympathy for a creative medium because the only way ITV is going to get back on track in a profit-making sense is through a creative vision. There's a certain amount of cost-cutting and asset stripping anyone can do, but if there isn't a real creative vision at its heart then I don't think it's going to thrive as a network."
Talkback Thames chief executive Lorraine Heggessey

"You don't actually need someone who can read a Coronation Street script and offer suggestions but you do need someone who can run a FTSE 100 company and run ITV as a brand. Someone who can do what Stuart Rose has done at Marks & Spencer and Charles Dunston at Carphone Warehouse."
Former Five chief executive David Elstein

"Running ITV is the toughest job in TV and it's tempting to try and fix things by getting rid of the people at the top. Charles has not got the recognition he's deserved and is paying the price for a periodic slump in ITV's fortunes. He has put together a good team and I hope they get the time to deliver for ITV1. The company needs someone who understands the broadcasting business. That doesn't mean they want to make programmes or read scripts, but they understand the market and what is happening when it comes to content."
Shed Productions chief executive Eileen Gallagher

"We're pleased to see the back of Charles Allen. He came in with a background in making cuts and he's lived up to his reputation, making nearly 4,000 people redundant. We're looking for someone to come in with a programme-making background. The way to make ITV great is not to cut, cut, cut, but to build up its programmes."
Bectu assistant general secretary Gerry Morrissey