Michael Grade resigns as BBC Chairman

Indeed, and whilst share is an important (perhaps the most important) factor in judging the success or otherwise of a programme, it's actual audience figures that directly drive advertising revenue.

In reality though it's not just about the news - it's also the programmes around it.

In theory it could be easier to fill an hour-long slot at 10pm than a 30-minute slot, but also would mean 30-minutes extra to fund a day.


Something else I've also said before - rather than trying to go head to head with C4 at 5pm, ITV1 would be better off taking a risk with a late-night chat show at 11pm - and if that worked, it should help boost the ratings of the programmes before it too!

So excited about this news! He will make better quality of ITV because of the family history as well.

That was a good report on the ITV News at 10.30 from Lord Bragg (or Melvyn Bragg to fans of The South Bank Show!)

Anyone else see it?

It was quite strange him filing a report!

The biggest problem Is with ITV 1 - the schedule, the programmes and most importantly the light-weight news. But apart from that the Multichannels need to be re-established with their own identites...

ITV1 - General Entertainment PSB channel (24 hours with GMTV)
ITV2 - General Entertainment with first run imported shows, sport and films (24 Hours)
ITV3 - Classic British programmes and imported programmes (24 hours - loosely based on the old Granada Plus and not the present ITV3)
ITV4 - merger of Men and Motors and ITV4 (24 hours)
CiTV - 0600 to 1900 (includes GMTV2 between 0600 to 0925) f/b ITV Play 1900 to 0600

With regards to the News debate - it is possible to have a national news show at 530pm as there are many people at home either work part-time, flexi-time, shifts etc (if anything the world of work is changing and is becoming more and more flexible so in fact there are actually more people at home in the early evening than when news at 540 was on air). Still prefer the lunchtime news at either 1230 or 1pm and the main news (preferably in a 45 minute high-brow with business news, sport news, paper review and political comment - more of a cross between BBC 10 O'Clock News, C4 News and Newsnight) between 10pm and 1045

All hail to Michael Grade - the possible saviour of ITV.

The point is that there isn't a 'serious' feedback programme now- there hasn't been for about a decade.

I favour a revision of the aims of Points of View- scheduling it before the Antiques Roadshow- and a Feedback programme on Mondays from 11pm- midnight, hosted by Nicky Campbell.

I thought that was a clever idea, the South Bank Show -esque way he did the report worked well I think.

Regarding the mock-schedule ^ Why split the regional news from the national news, I honestly don't understand that? Wouldn't it be better to keep national and local news together, seems more logical somehow. It feels disjointed to split local and regional news up with the hour-long chat show ( Richard Hammond Show in this case)

Saw the Lord Bragg report too - very good! And he's tipped to be one person who'll benefit with a higher profile slot for The South Bank Show!

Only Fools Greatest Moments on now. Another round of overused clips and interviews - one of which was Michael Grade as err "BBC Chairman"

And OT but really poor quality clips and sound, wonder if it's being cropped - can't tell.