GEITF 2002: Liddiment Admits To Taking Too Many Risks
David Liddiment has admitted that he may have alienated viewers by taking “too many risks” during his five years as ITV’s director of channels.
Speaking at this year’s Guardian Edinburgh International Festival, Liddiment, who is responsible for ITV’s costly gamble with The Premiership (see
Liddiment, who announced his departure from ITV last month, renewed his criticism of the BBC claiming that the corporation’s increasingly populist approach to programming was having a detrimental effect on the network’s main terrestrial channel, which has seen its audience share fall from 28.3% in June 2001 to 23% in June this year.
He said: “The BBC is much richer than it used to be and is driven in a far more commercial way, commissioning more soaps and prime-time drama than never before. This is bound to have an effect on our performance. Because of the way it is funded, the BBC has a primarily role to be one of the creative leaders in British TV, but at the moment it is not fulfilling this role.”
Liddiment, who defended the “soul” of British TV at last year’s GEITF (see
He added: “ITV has needed to evolve its offering to target a more valuable audience without alienating the masses. This has been a challenge as ITV’s all about ratings, its all about getting bums on seats and doing it in an interesting way.”
Liddiment spoke fondly of his time at network centre, citing the success of ITV’s At Home With The Braithwaites as one of his proudest achievements. He described British TV as unique, but said that he would not consider returning to ITV even if Carlton and Granada were to merge.
ITV came under considerable criticism at this year’s Festival with David Elstein, the former chief executive of Channel 5, launching a scathing attack on the network, claiming that the it has been brought to its knees by a decade of “profound mismanagement.”
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Reports on this year’s Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival will appear on NewsLine throughout the week.