ITV Discussion Thread

As Director of Television he has overall responsibility for all ITV output, however as you say, each channel (except ITV1) have their own controller, Zai Bennett at ITV2 for example. I expect that Fincham has a watching brief over the main channel.

Aside from the individual controllers, there are genre specific controllers such as drama, daytime, factual and entertainment / comedy. Each controller I imagine will report to Fincham as Director of Television.

As for presentation, the last time it was overhauled it was spearheaded by the then Director of Marketing and Commercial Strategy.

Incidentally I didn't think it mattered much previously, but it really is time for a refresh of presentation on ITV1. I realise content is key, but it doesn't help in that the wrapping isn't very attractive, and it hasn't been for some time now.

I knew about the different genre heads, but do they also come up with programming for the digital channels, or is that left for the individual channel heads?

As for ITV1 branding, I still think that the 2006 relaunch was a stronger brand for the channel. Not that well executed, but the series of idents provided an individual feel for introducing every time of programming, yet keeping the channel brand together.

I do think most of this was provided by the music, which in comparison to the current ident music was fantastic. The visuals weren't the best, but they did associate with the emmotion being symbolised (most of the time, still don't get the boy with the tooth!). The interaction between the scenes and the ITV1 logo would have made the idents greater, if there was a bit more of an animation at the start of the ident, and then had the logo going under elements in the scene as if it were built in.

The current package I've never warmed to, the music again has been a very big part of this, but I feel that some of the scenes chosen have were bad choices.

I do think that they should look towards doing something for September, maybe even going back to a graphical presence and doing something with the logo in this respect.

As you say, content is much more important than presentation for ITV at the moment. Let's get the programming sorted first and spend the cash on this than just more refreshes. I fear this will take quite some time however. It's a shame, ITV and although not as often publicised C4 have been a real victim of the digital tv / internet boom and ITV especially have tackled it in the worst possible way. The BBC have been far more clever I feel.

In terms of online, I'd agree, although when you compare £20m expenditure on itv.com against the licence fee funded £116m for bbc.co.uk you realise why.

However, in terms of digital TV, ITV's family of channels are the most popular than any other broadcaster. So, whilst ITV1 has suffered I'd argue that ITV have tackled the digital TV "boom" in the best possible way.

THanks for the reply Squareyes.

Yes I think I should have looked at the bigger picture a bit more, ITV do seem to be doing well with their digital channels, but then I'm not the only one who only really looks at how they're doing overall and especially how ITV1 is doing. It is still by far their flagship and however well ITV2 is doing in the digital market it's a long long way from replacing 1. To be honest I think that the ITV2 success is simply down to Zai Bennett.

The ITV online vs BBC online comparison is a good one. £116million for bbc.co.uk, it is funny it can cost that much when you think about it, crazy money. I don't think money's the problem with ITV.com, it just seems to have followed the lead of the rest of ITV's output recently - cheap, tacky and all over the place. The BBC can manage to sign up almost every independent producer to the iplayer service and ITV are still dwindling about with some of their biggest shows (Fremantlemedia seem to be an issue for their catch up service, but they give the Apprentice and other shows to the Iplayer) left off. Those that are there a lot of the time don't even come on and when they do it is still not a given that the whole show will be played without the video going back to the very beginning and more adverts being played! Poor show for £20mil really.

Bingo Night Live begins on ITV1 on the morning of Thursday 29 May at 5 past midnight. Woohoo!!!

It's in my diary.

Even though they'll be claiming it's not "Quiz TV", they're going to get an even bigger backlash to this than they did when ITV Play started in the overnight slots.

The weird thing is, these overnight gaming slots haven't seemed to have been ploughed into the rest of the schedule as they should be. Shareholder's pockets instead, perhaps?

Brilliant

Well the difference appears to be that there doesn't seem like there will be any exchange of monies to play, and it's only an hour a night.

According to this article ;


Bingo Night Live, the newest offering in interactive television from the ITV network, is set to wipe out the competition in UK TV gaming. Following the cancellation of ITV Play Block, a TV quiz show which received bad publicity due to improperly run games and excessive phone-in charges, Bingo Night Live is the next new craze in TV quiz shows from ITV productions.

This new bingo night live show, which will air for one hour at midnight Monday to Friday, takes on a whole new approach by offering players free opt-in and free play. Interested viewers can log on to the ITV.com website to register for a free Bingo Night Live account, which not only provides them with free bingo card download, but a personal, secure account for the pay-out of any winnings they receive! Registered players download their cards and then watch the presenter for instructions, who leads them through their game, whilst also telling them of other great games offered on the ITV.com website.

Prizes for the new Bingo Night Live show are rumored to start at under a pound and reach as high as 1,000 pounds for hitting a premium hand. All winnings are paid out immediately to the player’s Bingo Night Live online account and can be withdrawn via a variety of methods at their own leisure.

Despite the existence of similar bingo shows on satellite channels Virgin 1 and Challenge, Bingo Night Live is expecting to receive the highest viewer ratings due to its widespread accessibility on free-to-air television.

There are also some fantastic extras rumored for this new show, including a ton of guest appearances from famous celebrities and brief interviews with leading statisticians on bingo and winning odds.

There will also be a range of fun features such as lucky number finders, star sign information and discussions of player luck by geographical location. Bingo Night Live Numbers is the most exciting new offering from ITV and the next big thing to craze the UK, so register for your free account, get that coffee brewing and be the first to take your chance at winning thousands in cash and prizes!

And if TV Forum darling, Greggles ends up presenting, it will prove an overnight success here of course.

Teenage Kicks is getting bumped to a later slot tonight, which is 22:30. To make way for the Jeremy Beadle tribute programme at 21:30. Why they couldn't wait until a free 9-10pm slot was availible for this I don't know. Shows a lack of respect for the show.

Next week the final episode of Benidorm gets repeated at 22:30.