BBC Reality Cuts Leave Door Open For ITV
ITV looks set to benefit from the BBC’s commitment to reduce its reality TV output, according to reports this morning, with the broadcaster intending to concentrate on non-advertising revenue streams, primarily lucrative interactive ventures such as telephone voting.
According to the Times, ITV has doubled its revenue from premium rate telephone calls in the last financial year and, although the broadcaster will not release a detailed breakdown of its interactive revenues, telephony and non-advertising revenues now total £11 million.
ITV also outlined three principal aims in its full year results, claiming that it would grow the UK’s commercial TV market through promotion of advertising effectiveness and the strengthening of its channel portfolio, become the leading commercial content provider in Europe by creating new content for new technologies and increase its revenue streams beyond spot advertising.
The broadcaster’s last two objectives indicate that interactive technology, and the revenues generated by it, are high on the ITV agenda for the coming months. The company has already invested heavily in the launch of its dedicated interactive service, ITVi 24/7, with much of the content geared towards gambling and other revenue-driven activities such as the sale of mobile phone ringtones and logos (see ITV Boosts Interactive To Run Services Non-Stop).
The Government’s recent proposals to overhaul the management of the BBC could also yield increased business for ITV, with the Corporation instructed to no-longer run copy cat programming and refrain from excessive reality TV content, the majority of which features interactive elements such as phone polls or voting.
With the BBC forced to run less reality-focused content ITV will be free to dominate the genre, with premium rate phone lines and interactive voting providing supplementary revenue to the broadcaster.
The popularity of ITV’s reality shows is beyond dispute, with the final installment of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here‘s third series drawing an average of 15 million viewers to ITV1 in February 2004, securing its place as the third highest rating show of the year, behind Coronation Street and the England Vs France Euro 2004 football match. Elsewhere, the broadcaster’s much-promoted X Factor competition performed well, although not as highly as predicted by some, notching up 9.9 million viewers with its live final in December.
Last month saw ITV welcome proposals by Ofcom to reduce its non-news regional output, made as part of the regulator’s Public Service Broadcasting review, enabling the broadcaster to concentrate more on revenue-generating programmes and less on its PSB obligations (see ITV Welcomes Loosened PSB Requirements).
The move was made by Ofcom following long-running complaints by ITV that its current PSB commitments will become increasingly unreasonable in the face of competition from multi-channel broadcasters. However, the broadcaster’s complaints have drawn criticism from some commentators (see Thompson Attacks ITV For Neglecting Public Service Remit), with rival broadcasters also claiming that it is concentrating too hard on pleasing its shareholders and not enough on providing quality programming (see Dyke Blasts ITV Over Poor Programmes And Rising Profit).
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com
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