The decline / The end of ITV
-
Much recent talk has centred on the future of ITV given that both Sky and Ntl seem to have plans for the the broadcaster, which seems to have been in decline for some years.
BSkyB shocked the British media scene by snapping up 17.9% of ITV shares on Friday for £940million at a time where there has been much speculation as to the future of the tarrestrial giant.
Today, ITV rejected merger proposals with Ntl (Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin Group, is its largest shareholder) stating that the offer "materially undervalued" the company. These proposals had been put forward before the Sky purchase and was shown to value the ITV shares some 30p cheaper than the Sky offer. This lead to criticism of the power of Murdoch by Branson and the indication that OFCOM may launch a probe into the fairness of the Sky/ITV deal.
ITV is the UK's largest commercial broadcaster offering free-to-air services
However recently ITV, like Branson and his Virgin empire, has been badly hit by a fall of advertising revenue as well as a fall in viewing figures and market share.
Earlier in the year, other private equity groups were reported to be preparing a bid for ITV. ITV is also currently without a Chief Executive.
Regardless of what we as individuals may think of Murdoch, Branson, Sky and Virgin/Ntl, it surely upsets us all to view the decline of this broadcaster. One which, at the end of the day, did so much to entertain us all as children by broadcasting the original Knightmare run...
Your thoughts?
-
That would be a sad thing.
95% of all the Childrens Programmes I watched were on ITV.
There were only a few non CITV shows I watched such as Trap Door, King Rolo, Mr. Men, Bertha, Bannana Man and Ivor The Engine.
The rest was all Children's ITV. I always thought that ITV was the better Broadcaster in general.
While BBC had the edge on Drama, and still does on news in my opinion, CITV had everything else.
AND of course Knightmare.
But all these digital stations would have to be at the detriment to channels 1-5.
I hope ITV remains for years to come.
-
why does it seem to be where ever i go these days, i hear people bad mouthing Sky??
Because Rupert Murdoch is e-e-e-e-e-e-vil!!!!
I don't mind Sky these days in fact. Its presentation is far better than it used to be - less focus on glossiness and more substance than once upon a time - and its news/sports channels are a lot more honest than they were about ten years ago. (I'd go so far as to say I'd no longer have any reservations if Sky were to get a contract for making new episodes of Knightmare.)
But I do still feel uneasy about Sky's links to the US Corporate Brainwashing And Hard-Right Paranoid Propaganda Network... er, I mean Fox News Channel, and it does have a history of cornering markets that puts a lot of noses out of joint.
It used to be you just paid your TV licence. Nowadays, if you want to watch a lot of stuff that used to be on terrestrial, you pay the licence, you also pay a monthly subscription for satellite access, for some events you also have to hand over an additional PPV fee, and you still have to sit through adverts for most of it. Yeah, I know there's another side to all this, but it still gets up people's noses.
-
Children's TV on ITV1 cut further...
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2040563,00.html
ITV plan to cut kids' shows succeeds
ITV1 has been given the green light by Ofcom to reduce the amount of children's shows it broadcasts this year from an average of eight hours a week to about five hours a week.
The five hours each week are not subject to scheduling restrictions, and ITV1 does not need to run the programmes in its traditional afternoon weekday slot. A proportion of the programmes will run on weekends.
"Having taken into account the opinion of Ofcom, ITV confirms that children's output across 2007 will average around five hours of programming per week across ITV1 hours," said the broadcaster in a statement today.
"Including GMTV, the ITV1 channel is on course to broadcast in excess of 500 hours of children's programmes in 2007.
"In addition, ITV continues to invest in the CITV channel, which includes a high volume of UK-produced material and is available to around 90% of UK children."
An Ofcom spokesman said: "ITV neither sought Ofcom's approval, nor did we give it. Ofcom is required to offer guidance, and we made it clear that Ofcom expects ITV to remain a significant commissioning force in children's television with a range of programmes that suit a variety of children's tastes and needs."
ITV outlined its strategy in its annual statement of programme policy, released today.
The broadcaster unsuccessfully approached Ofcom last summer to lobby for a significant reduction in the amount of children's programming on ITV1 - it previously aired eight hours a week.
The broadcaster has arrived at a compromise with Ofcom after taking into account a range of factors including the restrictions on junk food and drink advertising to children, which come into force this month.
ITV said that it would continue to provide a wide range of children's programmes - including pre-school, drama, factual programming, entertainment and animation - with a "substantial proportion" of British programmes.
While ITV pledged to schedule shows at both weekends and weekdays the broadcaster added that it intended to "weight its children's output to weekends, where the children's audience can be reached more effectively on ITV1".
"This is a substantially greater commitment than any of our main competitors. Indeed, it as much as the total commitment across BBC1 and BBC2 combined," said ITV's director of television, Simon Shaps.
"All told, we believe that this represents a substantial commitment. There are real challenges for the funding of children's programmes in the commercial sector to which ITV1 is not immune. Ofcom is right to have launched a review on this important issue and we will seek to play a full part in that process."
In its own strategy report for 2007, GMTV points out an expected "continual erosion" of its kids audiences at weekends.
As a result GMTV has made a "small change" to its programming strategy that will see the production of adult appeal news-based programming on "a number" of bank holiday Mondays instead of children's shows.
The Pact chief executive, John McVay, said: "We are disappointed ITV will show less children's programming this year than last year, as indicated in its statement of programme policy.
"This comes at a time when the children's production sector is deeply concerned about about its long-term future and how it can continue to supply great children's programmes to British families.
"Pact continues to campaign on behalf of members to find sustainable solutions to the decline of the most important genre in public service broadcasting."
-
Well we could see it cpomming really when were all digital iyv 1 will have nothing to show during the day aaprt from repeats of poirot and all that rubbish
they cant even replace the citv slot with home growen stuff just repeats
I say they bring back the regional slots lol
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login