Home Menu

Site Navigation


Notices

TV Chat Chat about anything else on TV not covered by the other forums in this category.

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 12-09-2007, 05:50 PM #1
Scarlett. Scarlett. is offline
Senior Moment
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 40,662

Favourites (more):
BB2023: Henry
BB7: Nikki


Scarlett. Scarlett. is offline
Senior Moment
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 40,662

Favourites (more):
BB2023: Henry
BB7: Nikki


Default ITV drops the axe on \'Tired Programmes\' and possibly Hells Kitchen

Michael Grade, the new boss of ITV, today said he would chuck out "tired old programmes", screen fewer repeats and promised more long-running drama hits in the showpiece 9pm slot.

Grade, who was poached from the chairmanship of the BBC to turn round an ailing ITV nine months ago, said: "There are lots of new shows coming. There will be a major face-lift for ITV1.

"The channel has to be fresher, better and higher quality. I want to see fewer single 90-minute dramas and more high-quality drama series that run for 13 weeks at least.

"I want to increase our share of 'light' viewers in the key time slots." He said he wants far more quality dramas like Cold Feet and the Morse successor Lewis.

"We have fallen way behind. We lost our edge with the 9pm slot during the week, although we're doing very well at the weekend," he said. "We currently have less than half of that peak-time, we have to win it back."

Reality TV shows would appear "only if they really work well" and he promised "no more poor copies of other people's programmes". That includes Tycoon, the recent failed attempt to copy Sir Alan Sugar's The Apprentice.

Grade also promised that programmes would be scrapped "before they have been on too long or passed their sell-by date" - something which some critics say has happened to the current series of Hell's Kitchen.

ITV1, the flagship channel, has been losing its audience for the past four years as more and more households switch to multichannel television. That began with Sky but has increased sharply since the arrival of Freeview.

But better viewing figures today showed the loss of viewers is slowing down, with more than eight out of 10 homes having already switched to multichannel television well ahead of the official digital switchover in five years' time.

Grade recently poached Dawn Airey from rival Sky to be ITV's head of content, and today she is being charged with doubling the amount of money ITV makes from its own programmes - from the present £600 million to £1.2 billion by 2012. That will come not just from broadcasting but from internet and DVD sales.

Mr Grade said: "Paul Potts, who won Britain's Got Talent, has received more than 30 million hits on YouTube... internet companies are desperate for our content."

"In the old days ITV made a programme costing a million quid an hour, showed it on our one channel twice and then it disappeared into the archive. Now we have our own shop windows in ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 which makes it a lot easier to sell overseas."

But Grade said that ITV1 stalwarts Coronation Street and Emmerdale were not under threat. "By God, I'll say they're safe. They are the jewels in the crown of ITV."

However, he is planning to pull the plug on the controversial ITV Play phone-in quiz because the negative publicity surrounding it had caused calls to drop sharply.

Grade also said that he wants ITV2 to overtake Five as the third most popular commercial channel for the key 16 to 34-year-old market.
Scarlett. is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
 

Bookmark/share this topic

Tags
'tired, axe, drops, hells, itv, kitchen, possibly, programmes'


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 05:11 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2025 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
 

About Us ThisisBigBrother.com

"Big Brother and UK Television Forum. Est. 2001"

 

© 2023
no new posts