With Carlton and Granada set to merge at the beginning of next year, we'll almost have the single ITV which they have wanted for so long.
Let's say that that ITV plc swallows up Scottish, Grampian, UTV and Channel. The UK will have one of the largest commercial broadcasters in Europe.
But then what happens? Will it get bought by an American company such as Disney? Quite likely.
But what if it doesn't get taken over? I personally hope ITV starts buying up new assets to build up an empire. I think they missed a chance when The Jim Henson Company went up for sale at the beginning of the year. It was a well known company with a vast programming archive. I think it's a real shame if Carlton and Granada are just preparing the company for a takeover, because it's our only chance of competing in the TV industry on a global scale.
What do you think will happen over the next 5 or 10 years to ITV?
Saban and Viacom have already expressed an interest in buying ITV so I think it will be a case of when, not if, ITV will fall into American hands. However, wasn't one of the clauses of the merger going ahead that it could not fall into foreign ownership? Or did the goverment drop that too with every other condtion they initally set?
Carlton and Granada and ITV PLC are in it to make money for the shareholders and for the excutives to get big fat payoffs. They will do whatever will generate them the most money at the end of it. That means that they *are* preparing the company for a takeover.
All this talk about doing what they are doing to make ITV stronger is crap - ITV was strongest in it's past and should never have been allowed to get into the state it is in now. All the merging together eventually ending up with ITV PLC was done to A) Turn it into one convenient asset to make it more attractive to a foreign investor and B) to make it as cheap as possible to run until that happens.
In 10 years time ITV will doubtless be some arm of a sprawling American media giant and may not even be called ITV - if it still exists at all. Think it won't happen? Well consider how much ITV has changed in the last 10 years.
Once the Americans own it, expect American presentation standards to be imposed quickly. That means the end of continuity as we know it, more ad breaks than you can shake a stick at including one directly after title sequences, and god only knows what state the regional structure will be in - if that gets preserved (I realise the American networks are regional but that's only because it suits the marketplace there. ITV is allready merged together and will doubtless be viewed as one 'market' without any room for division). Once it's got into ITV, it will spread elsewhere. We often complain about the state of commercial television, we ain't seen nothing yet. Think the regulator won't let it happen? Well the ITC has spent it's entire life clearing hurdles out of ITV's way, I doubt very much whether the new regulator will be any different - anyone expecting a return to the iron hand regulation of the IBA will I feel be sadly disappointed.
Viacom do not currently have the financial strength to take over ITV.
Hallmark have expressed an interest.
Disney could be interested in taking over ITV but are keeping quiet about it. It is quite possible that their proposed non-Disney branded channel on the digital terrestrial TV network is a method of putting the toe in the water and their experience with that could determine a possible move to take over ITV.
In former days Vivendi might have looked to expand into the UK, but after M. Messier's disastrous reign due to getting the company into debt with large takeovers, and then the loss of income due to the recession, has meant that they are out of the picture completely.
The other possibility RTL Group, a Bertesman company, is unlikely to go after ITV, since they seem to be less and less interested in UK television, with a possible divestment of their ownership in five. Of course they could surprise everybody, sell off their stake in five, and then with the money raised go after ITV, but that would not be in keeping with their preferred style of operations of developping their own stations from scratch.
It is unlikely that a takeover will come about until ITV have divested themselves of their regional commitments and perhaps gone to a digital only transmission mode. Bascially, wait until ITV have gone through all of the cost cutting and job losses (Meridian studios to close, Granda TV centre to be demolished, integrations of ITN and regional news with obvious staff reductions etc etc) until a takeover candidate will come to the fore. After all, it is in the interest of the takeover candidate for the blame of all the blood letting to be on the shoulders of the ITV company rather than themselves,
and will also mean a better bargain to purchase.
So long as Corrie is on a few times a week I'm not really bothered what happens to ITV. At the end of the day, Carlton and Granada want to make money, but so will the investors. Disney or whoever aren't going to spend millions on ITV, then close it down - that just wouldn't be logical at all and they would lose so much money too! I also doubt they'll rename it - ITV is one of the strongest TV brands in Britain. Nor will they axe Coronation Street, Emmerdale or The Bill because they need ratings as much as Carlton and Granada. If they fill ITV with American imports and ratings drop, they will have to put something decent on to make money. A buy-out isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Britain's largest commercial broadcaster being owned by an American company is a bad thing in my book. We're not allowed to buy their networks, so why can they buy ours?
I agree with chrisb, some forum members are living in some sort of romanticised past where regional programming is the be and end all. The fact is, we're living in a capitalist society, and ITV is a business as well as a TV network.
They needed to move forward, and if you actualy read the accounts of some of employees at the ITV stations, you'll find it wasn't always easy working for more than one voice.
Threads like this only seem to be started to have a go at ITV.
I've just skimmed, but by the looks of it, without any technical jargon, only 2 things can happen.
1 - It'll Eventually make ITV1 better in a range of ways.
> From the pres point of view, it may cause a completely new look for the channel
> It may acutally make people want to watch the channel for something other than soaps and cheesy reality TV.
2 - Make it worse...
> Hell knows how it could get worse, personally, I'm rarely interested with what ITV1 have to offer. So merging can make the organisation of schedules, and proggramming standards slip...further.
I agree with chrisb, some forum members are living in some sort of romanticised past where regional programming is the be and end all. The fact is, we're living in a capitalist society, and ITV is a business as well as a TV network.
They needed to move forward, and if you actualy read the accounts of some of employees at the ITV stations, you'll find it wasn't always easy working for more than one voice.
Threads like this only seem to be started to have a go at ITV.
Erm, I think you ought to read my post again. At what point did I even hint towards regional programming, or a multi-company ITV?
I'm actually in favour of a single ITV. I just want to keep it as a British owned company.
I agree with chrisb, some forum members are living in some sort of romanticised past where regional programming is the be and end all. The fact is, we're living in a capitalist society, and ITV is a business as well as a TV network.
They needed to move forward, and if you actualy read the accounts of some of employees at the ITV stations, you'll find it wasn't always easy working for more than one voice.
Threads like this only seem to be started to have a go at ITV.
Erm, I think you ought to read my post again. At what point did I even hint towards regional programming, or a multi-company ITV?
I'm actually in favour of a single ITV. I just want to keep it as a British owned company.
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