ITV - Is enough being done?

Grade's been sitting pretty in his position for nearly 6 months now. Do we think he, along with the Director of Programming Simon Shaps, has done a good enough job so far?

Sure, it's early days and we shouldn't expect the full extent of changes to be felt until 2008, but to be honest I'm not seeing many signs to suggest they have enough of a 'vision' to put right ITV1. Grade has promised a 'drive in 9pm drama' which is good, but I think we need more than a few 2-part and one off dramas, and we need series with more than six episodes, and better marketing.

ITV hasn't the confidence anymore. They need to really up the ante and come back fighting. Produce some incredible drama series that can become the staple of the schedule, for all genres and days of the week. ITV needs a big, landmark drama of the gravitas of Doctor Who for BBC One. They need to get away from the soaps being the staple in the schedules and find some new jewels to put in their crown.

In short, they need to get their priorities right and be a bit more confident in their commissioning choices.

What does everyone think here?

6 months in I think they're doing pretty damn good to what they were.

You say they don't have confidence. Well, do you blame them? This is the unstable digital age, things are not how they used to be. However, I think they have upped the ante by introducing these one-offs to test the water and then perhaps commission longer series for later this year / 2008.

Light entertainment on ITV continues to go from strength to strength in my opinion. They took a risk with Britain's Got Talent - everybody said variety was dead didn't they, pah! - and who would have thought a show in the supposedly duldrums of summer would attract 11 million viewers, absolutely trashing Big Brother's 2 million?! ITV are coming full circle and I for one think it's working - don't try and beat reality with reality, just do your own thing and I think 2007 has been a much better year for them.

ITV.COM also looks very exciting and the archive could potentially be an amazing contribution to ITV's online success.

They are definally making moves in the right direction. I know many people think anything short of axing Corrie and The X Factor and filling the schedule with documentaries is not good enough, but the various new ideas, new comedy pilots, outside the box dramas etc are boosting ITV's offering, even if ratings can be mixed

Although audience share is still falling, which is inevitable in the multi-channel era, I believe it is falling not quite as fast as last year or as some other major channels

Totally agree. I always find it funny how people shout "axe! axe" to ITV's 2 biggest shows. Why would they want to axe the shows which give them the biggest ratings just because someone on a forum says so?

ITV is going back, slowly admittedly, to the hour long drama series over 4/6 parts. Look at Talk to Me and Time of your Life.

I think ITV is improving.

News Knight is so obviously going to bomb however.

They're certainly liking their IPPs - one at the start of the second part of Corrie and another before the end. Saw it twice and still can't remember the name of the show it was promoting!

If they're going to do these captions it would be nice if they'd let a graphic designer on them. A great big slab of black is hardly decent.

They were promoting Supersize my house: Tonight. I'm not sure if you noticed but during the display at the beginning of the second part of corrie, it said 9:00, but at the end it said 8:00, or is my eyesight just going bad??

ITV need a decent 5 O'Clock slot filler, not Poirot or whatever, Its too Sunday. and also need to upgrade on their Saturday Night;

I'm not going to time it all but i would have my Saturday night look like this from 6 O'Clock
You've Been Framed
Harry Hill TV Burp
GAMESHOW (BRING BACK STRIKE IT RICH!!)
TV Blunders
Saturday Night Movie from 10 or so (ACTION)

You used to have those Saturday nights where you piled on the Sofa to watch ITV 1 as it WAS funny, now... Millionaire and Parkinson, I'm gonna laugh my head off

Scrap Millionaire.
Possibly Shift Parkie to Friday nights.

5 O'Clock needs something live and fun.

Thats what i think

Or leave them out alltogether - they are really not needed, and irritating when you are trying to enjoy your favourite programme.

As for ITV, well there have been some signs of improvements - axing rubbish like Celebrity Love Island for a start. And there have been some excellent drama and entertainment programmes this year. ITV are really trying hard at the moment there is still a long way to go but it definately isnt as tacky as it was last year.

No-one is calling for ITV to axe Corrie or the X Factor. Why would I want them to axe 2 of my favourite shows? They could reduce Corrie down to 3 episodes a week though to protect the quality.

6 months is nothing it's far too soon, but positive steps are being made. Michael Grade had this to say in the recent Merrill Lynch speech ;

"I have been working with the commissioning and scheduling team on changes to ITV1 and the family of channels for 2008. The cycle of
commissioning programmes can be as long as two years for something like drama - from green light to on-screen, much of the 2007
schedule was already fixed. I am encouraged by the performance so far. Adult SOCI is down 5.7% year to date, we are slowing the
decline and this is important for future top line performance. There are potentially some easy wins - I can only speak about
schedule architecture in these general terms as the changes we are planning are VERY commercially sensitive."

The full speech can be read at itvplc.com, and based on what he had to say, he's hardly twiddling his thumbs.

I would Still LIKE TO SEE Saturday Kids shows brought back!