I understand there's restrictions on what you
can
advertise during children's television, but surely showing CITV on ITV1 / STV / UTV would attract more advertising revenue than showing repeats of crime drama?
They should use the 5.30 slot to show regional shows if they're going to put more money into regional television.
Thanks for that - I didn't know such things existed!
Well you do now. Most that don't are generally a bit mental.
I didn't know you were a qualified doctor who could advise me on my mental state? Anyways little boy (or student etc.) go and play with your computer while some of us have more important things to do.
Of course we are in a period of change for ITV, with Michael Grade just entering the fray, and the changes he is bound to introduce not coming through until the autumn. So obviously, the nephew of the late Lew Grade, will need some advice from the TV Forum team! So here's my twopenneth.
STRUCTURE
The days of a federal ITV are over - despite what people hope or expect, it's gone, so get over it. ITV is now a brand - just like any other channel in the multi media world. ITV should ideally be in just three businesses. These are broadcasting, production and resources - despite what Grade says, I just don't see what Friends Reunited brings to the business. Broadcasting would include web and interactive services.
With this in mind, I think it is practical for ITV to take over the television parts of SMG and UTV (add Channel to complete the picture) which will give the channel the ability to compete on an equal footing with the BBC and Sky. All other activities of ITV would be disposed of (except those mentioned above) giving the executives a chance to get the channel mix right - concentrating the minds on fewer tasks will always lead to higher quality. I also think that giving up the shareholding in the Irish Can West venture was a mistake - ITV should be able to compete effectively for the whole British Isles market, and be able to compete on satellite for those areas of Europe where English is spoken and understood easily.
In addition, the franchises should be made permanent (effectively they are) as anybody who would want a franchise would be quite able to set up a satellite channel without much difficulty. GMTV as a brand should be axed and replaced with a more consistent style of programme, as seen in America. Obviously Disney would be involved, but more of this anon.
BROADCAST CHANNELS
ITV1 should be made much more prominent - it seems to be overlooked for advertising spend, and has a poor image problem. Whilst the current crop of idents are good, the music is wishy washy and has no real purpose in respect of the channel. High profile advertising, in connection with a strengthened ITV structure, should result in more viewers. The BBC has used advertising in recent years with some effect.
ITV2 and 3 seem to be just right - risky and classic seem to bring in the viewers for these channels. ITV4 seems to be a bit lost - perhaps it should be axed and replaced with a sports style channel. ITV play just seems downmarket, even though it is a valuable revenue stream. The whole point of ITV should be accessability - ask anyone about ITV in the 1970's and they will tell you that it seemed like their channel. Men and Motors is also of little value - I'm sure we all like a bit of titilation, but Bravo does this sort of crap better.
RESOURCES
The vast number of studios that ITV use to be able to field has been whittled down by the previous management to just four centres (LWT's London Studios, Granada's 3sixty, YTV in Leeds and the former HTV centre in Cardiff) in addition to the mainly news centre's elsewhere. ITV no longer controls any OB facilities (having desposed of 021) and has not made any inroads in bringing these under a common cause.
Whilst the success of the main centres in attracting business is substantial, it could be better. Instead of all these disparate brands, the whole lot should be brought together as ITV Resources, and marketed as such. As we have seen with the BBC, an integrated resource of studio and OB units can provide a revenue stream and enable massive upgrading of facilities to be implemented.
In my view, the closure of Birmingham and Southampton was a mistake - in all they fielded and extras six studios, and I am sure that they will be required in the future. As ITV still owns these sites, perhaps a expansion should be brougt forward - it may cost money, but in the long run, you can rent them out if they are empty, and as they are costing money to leave them idle now, and income would be worth the expense.
PROGRAMMING ON ITV1
The big cookie. ITV1 is at times a mess. Too many soaps in the wrong places, lack of imagination and too many independents with rubbish ideas given commissions, because it's cheaper than ITV Productions to produce.
Ideally, the ITV1 schedule should be more stripped during the week, but with more imagination. I've broken it down into areas:
Weekdays
Ideally, this should start with a mix of news, lifestyle and kids shows - similar to the old TVam. LK Today should be a stand alone show and Entertainment Today should be reinvented for a Friday teatime slot.
This shold be followed by a gameshow (Pyramid Game etc.) followed by This Morning - that Jeremy Kyle really gets on my nerves and if this sort of show is needed, Vanessa Feltz seemed to pull it off much better.
Lunchtime should be started off with News followed by some kind of entertainment show - Loose Women just appears to be annoying. The afternoon should be filled with lifestyle shows and cheap drama. Farmhouse Kitchen and Crossroads mkII could be brought back - they are better than that terrible Worral Thompson and Crossroads mkII was a lot better than some peope gave it credit for. It would be nice to see it return to its Birmingham roots, and with permanent sets it could make the Birmingham proposal seem more viable (plus it would be better than Gas Street).
Kids TV should be reintroduced, even if just for an hour. My Parents are Aliens, Big Bang etc. were very well produced, and I'm sure that quality produced kids shows can attract advertisers. The tratime slot should be filled by 'fun' shows - I can see Alan Titchmarsh turning people off, he's more lunchtime than peaktime. Entertainment Today could be used on Friday to give a lift to the weekend, with local opt outs for 'what's on' guides.
The news hour works in my eyes, but some regions output (Calendar, ITV Wales News, Central News West, Meridian South) is far better than others (Central News East, London Tonight) and needs some reshaping. Personally, I would give the news contract for London back to LNN - it was a decent show before ITN took over. The evening news is good, but I wonder if it is in the wrong place and filled with 'lifestyle' stories that should be elsewhere.
The evening schedule has too many soaps - far too much. I deally Coronation Street should be reduced to 3 x 30 minutes (Mon, Wed, Fri) and Emmerdale into 3 x 60 minutes (Tue, Thu, Sun). The rest of the timeslots should be filled with gameshows (they bring in the viewers) and Comedy - ITV desperately need a decent sit-com, perhaps they should look in the YTV archives to see how many quality, popular shows were produced in Leeds in the last 39 years.
Drama should focus on hourly formats, formed into series. The ITV way of 2 x 90 minute shows are difficult to plan around and give viewers a chnce to miss the second part. Serials fare better, and I would include The Bill in this - it is far too 'soapy' for my liking.
The News at Ten would return followed by films etc. Local programmes would make a comeback - better funded and on at times when people will actually watch them. Documentaries also need to be reintroduced - not Trevor McDonald, but serious subjects as per World in Action, TV Eye and First Tuesday. It has been proven to bring in higher quality audiences and that means higher costing advertising.
Weekends
Saturdays are for kids, sports and entertainment - the LWT way! Giving over vast hours of time to cooking seems daft to me, Saturdays are normally the only time the adults get a lie in, so filing the schedule upto dinnertime with kids shows, music shows etc. seems ideal.
Whilst Sky has bought all the sport, some lower ranking sports could now be covered by ITV. I'm not advocating a return to 'World of Sport' but amixture of sport, classic shows and films could well make this dead time for TV a bit more surprising.
The ITV evening schedule on Saturdys and Sundays seems to be quite good - especially Saturday. Perhaps it is time to retire 'Heartbeat' - but replacements should be sought.
ITV PRODUCTIONS
The mixed messages given by the joint GRANADA/ITV PRODUCTIONS tag seems ridiculous. Just call it ITV Productions and be done with it. I hate Granada, a name that lives on past glories and reputations that were higher than in reality. Personally, I didn't see a problem with the purple inspired endcaps, but as ITV Productions exists, and is now a limited company lets get on with it.
It seems ridiculous that ITV Productions produces some of it s best programmes (Countdown, The Royle Family etc) for other broadcasters. Either it should concentrate on its own channels, or live with the ITV Productions name for all its output. The BBC seems to get away with it (hence BBC America on the recent 'Sharpe' film). ITV really needs to invest on its inhouse production as well. Just as the BBC sees the north as being Manchester, ITV seems to be doing the same. ITV bases in Leeds, Cardiff and possibly Birmingham and Southampton should be used as a basis for forming a resurgent ITV.
Whilst Birmingham has already been mentioned, surely ITV could hammer out a drama or daytime soap from Southampton (a New Forsest version of 'Home & Away'?) and from Cardiff, 'Taff Acre' could be resurrected from the past. If ITV did control the Scottish and Irish franchises, a great deal of regional production could be formed from Scottish drama.
Just some thoughts - let's discuss!
Maybe the best thing Michael Grade could do to ensure the future success of ITV would be to buy Endemol, Red Bee Media and Arqiva.
ITV was to return to the 1989 Generic system of doing things, ITV would still have a presence with the regional company's name taking priority. If I was Michael Grade this is what I would do:
1.Restore all the ITV regional companies except Carlton, rename Granada as ' North West Television ' . Start negotiating with the RTL Group to acquire the rights to the Thames brand and back catalogue of programmes, revamp the old Thames continuity intro and during the week branded the channel "ITV1 - Thames" and at the weekend LWT.
2. Ditch ITV Play in favour of good original innovative homemade programming, the main production centres would be based in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff.
3. Takeover SMG and reinstate regional identities ( Scottish and Grampian )
4. Re-start Children's productions and the CITV service on ITV1.
5. More hard hitting current affairs programmes such as ' World in Action ' and ' First Tuesday ' , while ditching the lightweight ' Tonight with Trevor McDonald ' .
There would obviously be more to do, but this would be a good start, what ITV is lacking more than good quality programmes is ' Creditability ' , this would go a long way to restoting it's tarnished image. I really would love this to happen , like I would like to win the lottery, we can but dream !one thing I know for certain is that Sky's stake in ITV is bad news and they must be made to reliquish them !
