Grade And IPA Attack ITV Spending

ITV companies are not spending the amounts of money which they promised to on programming, when they bid for their licences according to Channel 4 chief executive Michael Grade.

Mr Grade has written to Mr Leslie Hill, Chairman of the ITV council, complaining of a “black hole” in ITV spending plans at a time when the profits of companies are rising steeply.

Channel 4 said the cost of Independent Television News which ITV puts at £513.3m, “must have produced a saving of £77.7m over the figures proposed by the bids”.

Mr Hill said yesterday that he would be replying to Mr Grade and insisted that” ITV was providing the quality schedule promised but at a lower price”.

The Channel 4 attack on ITV is a further part of its campaign to change the funding rules.

The IPA have also written a letter to The ITV Network Centre which complains of a lack of investment in programming. Andrew Quinn (chief executive) is due to have a meeting with the IPA to discuss the points in the letter. The IPA were keen to stress that they do not want to be seen to be rapping ITV in any way, but as representatives of agencies they want the commercial sector to succeed.