Whats Next for ITV?

Sounds like a nice combination.

I've noticed that Granda Plus seem to just call themselves 'Plus' meaning if it was switch to ITV they could keep all of the idents and branding virutally the same in the short term.



I agree that CiTV should run until 5:30pm, although I would rather not see another soap, as there is enough on ITV already. A programme like Catchphrase or You've Been Framed is ideal (to an extent) as it is suitable for all ages.

What is wrong with the daytime schedule Sirthaw?

Trisha gets respectable viewing figures and This Morning has been consistent, especially since Fern and Phillip took over. The 12:30 ITV News also performs well in that slot.

Onto 13:00 and Des and Mel is another popular, feel good programme which suits the slot very well.

The only *possible* problem area could be either side of CITV from 14:00 - 15:00 and then 17:00 - 18:00 - but even lately such programs as I want that house, i want that holiday, bootsale challenge are typical daytime fodder which Channel 4 have been churning out for a while now!

ITV have also filled the 14:30 for a few months with regional programing.

A bit of variety inserted into the schedule with the new 24 Hour Quiz filling the slots either side of CITV - whether it works is debatable!

If you compare the current itv1 schedule with a schedule from, say 15 years ago, you will be surprised how *good* it actually is! Previously it was filled with foreign imports and dire regional programs!

LOL a typical ITV Daytime Schedule from 15 years ago would have been

9.25 Win Lose or Draw
9.55 ITN News
10.00 The Time The Place
10.30 This Morning
12.10 Kids Programme
12.30 ITN Lunchtime News
13.10 Regional News
13.20 Home and Away
13.50 A Country Practice
14.20 Take the High Road
14.50 ITN News and Regional News
15.00 Sons and Daughters
15.30 CITV
17.10 Home and Away
17.40 ITV News at 5.40

Something like that anyway!

Ok Jez - i was thinking then maybe 20 years ago.

Where the line up consisted of Schools programs in the morning, maybe rainbow and puddle lane at 12:15 before the lunchtime news.

Then in the afternoon all it was full of was Country Practice, Murder she wrote, Sons and daughters, falcon crest etc etc. There wasnt any original british-made tv programs on itv going back 20 years. The only time 'proper' british programs were broadcast was in primetime - especially when all the regions used to do their own thing.

I do agree with you though that i used to love a gameshow on at 925 and remember things like Win lose or draw, connections, runway, supermarket sweep and even Keynotes (made by HTV!)

The Time The Place was always a bit boring and not the type of program that your typical housewife (majority of audience at that time) wants - so it was tarted up into Vanessa then eventually trisha. Of course BBC done pretty well with Kilroy but I dont think there was any point in having two similar programs on at the same time from the same genre so it appears that itv opted for the more commercial, aimed at housewives, tabloid reading general public.

The afternoon schedules have only come together in the last few years after dropping foreign fodder like Home and Away, Shortland Street and Country Practice. Also if you include Take the High Road in that - you can see how the ITV schedule has improved and become MORE varied!

GMTV, Trisha, This Morning, and Des and Mel - great. Keep them. From then on, downhill. CITV is crap. They need to appeal to teens like CBBC does with shows like Byker Grove, Grange Hill, etc. The presenters are cringey, CBBC's are great. It stops at 5PM, CBBC carries on. CBBC has Newsround, CITV doesn't have a kids news program.

Another HUGE problem with ITV is their bloody website. It's so rubbish. ITV need to do alot more before they start worrying about other channels.

Yes I do seem to remember School progs on ITV in the mornings, I was very young at the time but I think it was

9.25 HTV News Headlines
12.00 School Programmes
12.00 Children's Programmes
12.30 The Sullivans
13.00 ITN NEWS AT ONE
13.30 HTV News
13.40 Take the High Road
14.10 A Country Practice/Murder She Wrote/Falcon Crest
15.10 News
15.15 HTV News Headlines
15.20 Sons and Daughters
15.50 Children's Progs
17.00 Regional?
17.40 ITN NEWS AT 5.40
18.00 Wales at Six
18.30 Crossroads

I think ITV could have left one soap (Shortland St) in the daytime schedule. They didnt axe A Country Practice, that finnished in OZ. I remember watching that when I was very young, off school ill I think, my mum watched it so I watched it with her, I also watched it when it moved to 17.10

I think ITV are currently showing too many crappy shows about antiques/moving house etc during the day, they need more drama.

OK, bosses at ITV read this VERY carefully:

The next time the rights to the Premiership are auctioned, there will be three packages of matches on offer, probably Gold, Silver and Bronze. Do not put in a huge bid for the Gold package, let Sky Sports keep it. Be deadly serious about bidding for Silver (though it'll be considerably cheaper than the current going rate).

When you win, set up the ITV Sport Channel, make it subscription, but considerably cheaper than Sky Sports (a stand- alone subscription of about £10 a month should cover it). This would tempt a large number of viewers who feel Sky Sports charge way over the odds (myself included, and I'm what you'd call an ABC1 viewer).

Then put in a MODERATE bid for Nationwide League Football, if it goes too high let Sky Sports have it, but should you succeed it'd tempt many followers of smaller clubs to your channel.

After this you should extend your repetoire by bidding responsibly for other sports, but football must be your absolute backbone.

REMEMBER:

Without live Premiership footy your channel will be a non starter. This, combined with your risiculously high bid for the Nationwide League was what caused all the problems last time around! And with THREE packages becoming avaliable next time around, there should be something you can seriously consider bidding for.

To be honest I don't mind the way it is now, but I think there would be some alterations, keep ITV1 the way it is, but I would change ITV2. I would keep some repeats, but I wouldn't repeat them to death, another good idea is if they put a CiTV2 slot on, maybe during the day and at teatimes. I would also comission some brand new shows, they did this when they launched in 1998, even though they only had 700 viewers and a shoestring budget its original offering was very good, as it had a good mix of ITV(1) shows too. I would say that ITV1 +1 would be a good idea, as every other channel are doing, heck why not do so on a popular channel? It would work well and they are cheap to run. Plus ITV3 wouldn't sound bad, as long as they don't make it 24 hours, run some popular programmes with quality such as The South Bank Show and you would have a good channel.

So I would have it like this...

ITV1
ITV1 +1 / Timeshift sounds better
ITV2 (With more focus on kids and original shows)
ITV3
ITV News
ITV Gold
ITV Men and Motors (Unless that got sold to someone else)

Though it may raise these questions..

- How many GMTV's will there be?
- What will happen to shows on Plus which are made by the BBC? And those new ones like 10-8.

Yes Jez that was a typical sort of line up that i was thinking about!

All the soaps from down under were particularly bad including sons and daughters, young doctors and shortland street - itv have gone from saturation of foreign soaps to ZERO. Whereas, as you correctly say, there are too many antique and house programs at the moment. Its not only ITV that is saturated with this type of program though - BBC1 and C4 are just as bad - where d'you think ITV got the ideas from in the first place!

SO JEZ - what would you like to see in the daytime schedule?

At the moment ITV is on the up. ITV1 has had some brilliant original drama over the last year and their primetime schedule is much more appealing than the BBC's. As said above it's the 2-6pm slot which is weakest, but ITV have recognised this and are attempting to rectify it.

ITV News is also sorting itself out, so I guess the next step is for interactive and text services from ITV (maybe they should join up with Teletext on DTT like C4 have done), while I imagine channels such as Granada Plus will become ITV+ eventually.

Absolutley.



Are they?

You think CBBC appeals to teens? Err - I think not. I see teens watching Cbeebies as more realistic.