Was Michael Grade right?

I think most ITV staffers welcomed his arrival at first. It was not long however before very public spats with the Regulator began and cut-backs, particulalry Regionals, followed. Yorkshire was left with an empty studio complex with TX in the middle and Emmerdale renting space down the road. Not perhaps the best business plan.
The revival is surely more to do the present board of directors, better ITV owned shows and better business sense.

of course if there is NO money to keep a building and staff open, what else can you do.

He seems to know what he talking about, he still pop up still to this day talking about how good stuff can be, like last years radio 2 doc series.

When Grade took over it was quite refreshing, after years of Charles Allen beating everyone round the head with talk of cuts and bargain basement ideas (his last big idea was ITV Play which says it all). The problem was Grade's plan wasn't particularly long-term - it was fairly standard stuff about making money from programme formats, which ITV Productions (as was) wasn't doing too well at that point. Then the whole thing got hobbled by the recession and they had to make some really drastic cuts just to stay afloat in 2009, which was what they wanted to avoid doing.

Crozier has been more lucky with his timing economy-wise but there has been a more general steady-hand-on-the-tiller approach, with a more long-term plan. Equally they've been quite clever at courting the City to give them time to do it which Grade wasn't that talented at doing. The schedules are also immeasurably better - I know they're not everyone's cup of tea but I think everyone forgets how much rubbish there actually was in ITV's schedules 10-15 years ago. A lot of the credit for that can go to Peter Fincham.

I dont think Grade could have done a long term plan, Im sure during this time, there had to revise the plans again from the recession, so it would be pretty hard to guess whats going to happen in the worst conditions in years. But he did try and expland the Production side of ITV.

Could the current team at ITV been able to do what there doing if Lord Grade did not overhaul ITV back in 2007? In this day and age you need a learn and tightly spend company to get the best programmes etc.

Other points is Grade still right about the PBS only being worth £40m a year?

It's thanks to the current board that the ITV Border region is being reinstated. However, the studios in Carlisle were closed and demolished after the Tyne Tees and Border regions merged, so there will probably be the situation where the 'new' Border region will be based in Gateshead - and Gateshead itself is miles away from the border!

I don't think so.
Most of the "old" board have gone.
I didn't believe smashing up the regional centres was the way forward when they ran the shop.
There was a lot of sabre-rattling about costs of news provision - all quite correct - but ITV is now pretty much back to where it was minutage-wise if the regulator agrees but without the studios locally and recorded programmes rather than live.

It's a shame they scaled down to such a small complex in Carlisle as they could never house a full studio in their current complex.
It's ironic that the most popular regional news service in the UK isn't actually broadcast from inside that region.
It's hard to think how Tyne Tees could cope producing two full regional shows with only the one studio? Something must be happening if that's the plan?

They didn't have much choice I suppose, the old Border place is too big for a bureau and that's all they need with the current set up


Record one and do one live... I believe that's what some of the other regions will soon be doing.

Sadly Tyne Tees & Border is seen as a Pan-Region by ITV these days, therefore the Border bulletins will be produced at Gateshead as Sub-Regional. In my opinion Ofcom should never have allowed the closure of the Westcountry and Border Newsrooms as they were original ITV/Channel 3 regions (unless both the BBC/ITV went with the Government Region/Nations plan instead to allow for a real local TV network - not the current idea).

You and your Government regions.

I'd far sooner have local telly than 'Government Region' telly. Those things don't actually mean anything to most people.

Sorry... I'd like proper Local and Regional TV too. As for our Regional TV through the BBC and ITV, after nearly 60 years it should be the way it always was pre 2009. I just feel ITV have made a mess of the original Regional map, the Westcountry and Border newsrooms especially should never have been closed.