Airey Says TV Viewer Trust Can Be Restored
The recent airing of television’s dirty laundry with phone-in scandals and declining audience trust has considerably damaged the industry, according to new ITV MD of global content, Dawn Airey.
Speaking last week at the Promax Branding and Marketing Conference, Airey said: “This year the media spotlight shone into the darkest corners of the industry and what’s been found is not just deeply careless but deeply unsavoury, particularly in relation to premium rate.
“The whole industry is having to pick up the pieces of these mistakes and regain its trust with the audience. The damage has been considerable but I don’t believe that our trust with the audience has been irreparable damaged.”
She added that television remains at the heart of any entertainment business and will for many years to come, despite its problems and the rise of the internet.
Airey said that social networking sites such as Facebook are “trends” driven by consumer consumption as people want their content on tap and to share it with friends, saying that the growth of broadband is having a profound impact on traditional media consumption.
In order for ITV to gain more audience share, she said, it must improve its hit rate and get more of its own shows. ITV has a wide variety of channel brands according to Airey, which is critically important to the broadcaster’s success. However, Airey added that ITV had to consider programme brands as well.
Earlier this month, Rupert Howell, ITV’s newly appointed commercial chief, stated at a MediaTel Group seminar that part of his job will be to turn ITV from a “passive brand” to one that is active in the new television landscape, moving it into some sort of “virtuous cycle rather than the vicious circle that there’s been in recent times” (see Howell Reveals His Vision For ITV’s Future).
Last week, executive chairman, Michael Grade, announced that ITV1’s schedule is to be relaunched next year (see Michael Grade Reveals Major Schedule Relaunch For ITV1).
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