ITV America????

Us Stateside have BBC America. Full of Changing Rooms, House Invaders, etc.. only decent thing I've seen on there lately. Given people have talked about the dire state of ITV perhaps a ITV America channel on satellite over here would have some appeal??

Firstly... Is it feasible?
Secondly... would it work??
Thirdly... would anyone Stateside watch it apart from disenchanted BBC America viewers?
Fourthly... what should be on ITV America should it go on air?

Mark.

I guess schedule wise it would probably end up looking a lot like ITV2 without the American imports.

When Saban or one of the other vultures snap up the newly unified ITV, I think it's fairly likely that there will be an ITV America of sorts, although I think it's unlikely to carry the ITV brand. Unlike BBC, or even ITN, ITV is very far from being a recognised brand in the US. It is possible that were a US conglomerate to snap up ITV then it would get a reasonable amount of coverage over the pond, but again not enough to brand a new channel with it.

I would imagine it would be far more likely to launch with a name like 'Brit Plus' to first establish the channel and its programming. Later, once the integration of the unified ITV into the conglomerate is complete, and a coherent medium/long-term strategy for ITV branding has been developed, I would expect a change to take place, although again this would not necessarily involve promoting the ITV brand anywhere outside the UK; instead it could simply involve consolidating all subsidiaries under the parent branding - for example by renaming the UK channels "Saban UK" and "Saban UK 2" - although the latter move would be highly unlikely.

So in answer to your question, it's not out of the realms of possibility that the US would get a channel focusing on ITV programming, but not until ITV has been snapped up by a larger global player; even then, don't expect to see an ITV America logo on screen.

Some of the ITV programmes are sold to BBC America. Although it's interesting that that channel has one soap, that of course is Eastenders.

So if BBC America does no want to show Corrie or Emmerdale, then maybe it's about time they consider setting up ITV America and stop selling their programmes to BBC America. Mind you they could also do with a ITV Europe!

Also ITV Evening News is on Newsworld International in the states.

Catch up. They axed EastEnders a while ago, and there has been a huge campaign to get it back on. BBC America can't afford it.

BBC America, unfortunately, is terribly broken. Until they realise that they can't live on home and garden programmes forever, they're viewership isn't going to increase. I've always wanted almost analagous to BBC One for BBCA, (except probably with BBC World news, etc.).

And, unfortunately, funding is a problem. Until they get a balanced schedule that draws in more disparate advertisers than the DR Trimmer/Mower and the Hydroxycut weight loss compound, they're going to be digging themselves into a programming rut that's going to get more and more difficult to remove themselves from without a rebrand.

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It wouldn't work. In the US people watch individual TV shows and don't really pay much attention to the networks.

Even if networks have an excellent lineup on a particular night, the network's recognition will be secondary. E.g., CBS has an excellent Monday night lineup at the moment (Yes Dear, Still Standing, Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men, CSI)...except it's marketed as "Monday Night on CBS"...and I dont really watch CBS the other nights of the week.

So ITV's shows, as a concept, would work if an American version was developed (the Brit accents would get in the way of successful US viewership). But the channel itself would not be a big hit.

It wouldnt even be a little hit.

In fact, I doubt it would make money...unless cable companies forced people to pay for it by including it in the more basic packages...but why would they do that?

That's the one problem - the Americans refuse to understand our 'outrageous accents' so anything British in America won't really work very well. I wouldn't want ITV to launch in America anyway. As it is, they've wasted enough money. Time to see British television cut the American imports and show some brilliant, independent, British programming.

Totally agree - it's a good thing that American imports are pretty much kept out of peaktime and much of the rest of the schedules on BBC1 and ITV1.

Part of the problem is that BBC America airs at the behest of their partner here, Discovery Communications. Discovery seems to have this notion that the home shows are what everyone here wants to watch. I have to agree with you in that BBCA should be analogous to BBC One, and quiet as it's kept, if it DID run in that fashion, BBC World News could be substituted for the BBC One newscasts.

ITV's evening newscast runs in the evening hours on Newsworld International here in the US. At this point, though, NWI's days are quite possibly numbered. As part of the Vivendi/NBC transaction, NWI is being actively shopped around to other interested parties (though it would make more sense for either NBC to retain it as an international network, or for them to sell it back to the Canadians for an outlet for CBC in the States).

Former Vice President Al Gore wants to buy it to create a news network geared toward "younger" audiences, but stockholder Barry Diller (who holds some measure of veto power, due to his prior position with USA/Vivendi) has said he'd veto any NWI sale to Gore or his interests.

Needless to say, we may lose ITV's newscasts as a result.