ITV 'unhappy' with ITV4

Is it really aimed at just young males? I'm sure theres a whole bunch of the older stuff on there that's right up my dad's street, and he's probably double the age of the target demographic. Unfortunately, he can't receive it, being on Telewest...

No wonder it isn't doing as good as ITV3 if it isn't on Telewest.

I wasn't aware of this, why isn't it on Telewest?

Wasn't that part of the proble at launch, ITV not being able to strike a deal over ITV4 with Sky or Telewest? Perhaps that issue is still yet to be resolved.

If anything I think Men & Motors has improved significantally since ITV took over the channel, yes it's full of repeats, but they aren't too bad, and I watch it a heck of alot more than what I do ITV4. Yes ITV do run M&M on the cheap (same with ITV1-4 really) but it's got good repeats such as Minder, Auf Widersehen Pet, Police Camera Action! and many of the ex-GMG North versions of Crimefighters (nwtv2003)

Sorry to slightly spoil your party but Men and Motors, formerly called GRANADA Men and Motors has always been operated by ITV. At first it was Granada in partnership with SkyTV, under GSKYB banner. Then when ITV wanted ITV3 to come to satellite they bought out Sky and thus GRANADA Plus disappeared and reamerged as ITV3. One clause in the buyout was that if ITV ever sold off Men and Motors Sky would get at least 40% of the profits - buty nothing ever mentioned if M&M was merged with another ITV channel or was renamed!!!!

In my opinion it would be better if ITV4 was merged with Men and Motors and actually became a 24/7 channel - on the M&M transponder. But I would definitely put all live sporting events back to ITV1 and ITV2, e.g. F1 preliminary rounds on ITV2 with the live race on ITV1 and Champions League matches to be shown on both ITV1 and 2. UEFA matches on ITV2 and live Boxing on ITV2.

It's not so much ITV4 as ITV3-2. It's reliance on archive material is its downfall - Randall & Hopkirk, the Saint etc. should be replacing the guff on ITV3 (only so much Jeeves and Wooster I can take). It's OK for sport that used to be on ITV2, but apart from that, nothing else.

And it's not 6-6 - its 6-3 at best, with the rest taken up by bloody teleshopping

It was a mistake to close down Granada Plus - I miss my daily fix of Classic Corrie. The least ITV3 could do is show some old Corrie.

i haven't watched a thing either on itv 4. i personally think that itv should think about what progammes they broadcast rather on how many channels the have

I really do think a merger of Men & Motors & ITV4 is needed. The old school "men's" classics from both ITC & ITV would sit well with the sport and other "men's" programming.

David Letterman must be going for the record for the most different UK channels that his show's been on. Anyone care to try a list?

As to the channel in general, the archive material is aimed at a specific audience, mainly old enough to remember the programmes the first time round.

It's a bit like expecting Classic Gold to be popular with the Radio 1 audience.

I quite like 'Crank Yankers'. Other then the football it's the only thing I've watched on ITV4. I still watch ITV2 more - so considering I'm exactly who ITV4 are aiming at they must be going wrong somewhere.

Yes I am fully aware of that fact that M&M was part of the Granada Sky Broadcasting venture, I also know that the channel has been on air since 1st October 1996, yes Granada made alot of the programmes, but they were specifically made for M&M, but these were usually shows about Motors or crappy Soft porn related programmes that weren't too good. I'm saying since ITV took 100% control of the channel and put it on Freeview, the output of the channel has got better and I've found myself watching the channel more than what I once used to.

Granada did input most of the old M&M, Sky was more or less there only to get carriage on Astra and on Cable. The Granada tag was only used until about 2001 or 2002 when they dropped it to M&M (same went for Plus), the word Granada was rather unneccessary considering the fact that there was really nothing Granada-ery about the station and it's output. Plus the channel also got a fair bit of it's programmes imported and from Independent Producers.

I think it's a shame GSkyB closed, but that's business, frankly how long would you expect a joint venture between Sky and ITV Plc to go on for? Especially in 2006, the TV world was different in 1996 when GSkyB launched, Granada wanted a multi-channel presence, they got it through BSkyB, by 2004 Granada was ITV Plc which was most of the ITV Network and also had Freeview, which was growing faster than Sky, ITV probably see a FTA channel on DTT more profitable than a pay TV Channel on Sky.

I wonder what would have happened if Carlton's channel's were still around, but saying that there was nothing good on them anyway, with the exception of Carlton Cinema, which was a good rival to TCM.

I'm excatly the same. He to me is the only good thing on the channel any more, plus it doesnt clash with Conan and Leno on CNBC either so thats fine

I just feel the programmes are really ITV at its worst, or mabey ITV1/2 rejects to be honest.