ITV Chiefs Discuss Sliding Ratings

Senior executives at ITV are to hold an emergency council meeting today to discuss falling audiences and complaints by advertisers about the high cost of buying airtime. The council will discuss the programme budget for 1995 and the Autumn schedule. The ITV Network Centre told MediaTel this morning that it very much doubted if the issue of increasing advertising time would be discussed, as suggested in some of today’s newspapers.

Marcus Plantin, the ITV network director, said yesterday that there was no crisis although ITV had been “bitten around the ankles by the improved performance of its rivals.” Speaking in an interview on Radio 4, he said ITV would fight back with its Autumn schedule, which will be revealed on July 10.