ITV Companies Should Co-Operate, Convention Told

David Liddiment, the newly appointed network director at ITV, has said that the three major ITV companies of Carlton, Granada and United News & Media should work more closely together to become an “ITV plc” operation.

Speaking at the Royal television Society convention in Cambridge, and reported in today’s Financial Times, Mr Liddiment said that the main ITV players would in future act as a “programming consortium” instead of competing with each other to provide a united front in the face of increasing competition from other commercial TV.

While the possibilities for co-operating on advertising are limited due to ITC regulations, there are opportunities to work together on marketing as well as programming. There was also talk of altering the London ITV situation so that programme could be better co-ordinated and cross-promoted. The placing of News At Ten on the schedule is also understood to be on the agenda for change.

…Also reported at the Convention: C4’s new chief executive, Michael Jackson, has said that there is too much reliance on American imports and there should be more nurturing of home-grown talent on the channel, while Don Cruickshank , director general of Oftel, has warned that an overhaul of media regulation rules is required to cope with the influx of new media.