ITV Launches Promo Push For New Weekday Schedule

ITV kicked off a major advertising campaign this week. The promotional push is the broadcaster’s attempt to hold on to and win over viewers following the axing of its News At Ten bulletin (see Newsline). If ITV is to achieve its 1999 39% of peak time viewing share target, the rescheduling of its programming following the loss of the News At Ten is of vital importance

The promotional push consists of three strands. The first strand aims to highlight the changes that ITV has made to its weekday schedule, and the types of programmes which it will be showing. It will also highlight the fact that the removal of the ten o’clock news will enable the channel to broadcast films or two-hour specials in their entirety. Strand two focuses on showing the change in the style of programming ITV has implemented, which the broadcaster claims is ‘smarter and fresher’.

Lastly, the third branch of the campaign outlines the new programmes which be replacing the News At Ten. ITV Evening News and ITV Nightly News will be broadcast at 6:30pm and 11pm respectively. A new 60-minute current affairs programme called Tonight will also be featured to boost the Network’s current affairs output.

The beginning of the campaign, currently being shown, involves 10-second clips saying that ‘TV Gets Better’ from the 8 March, which is when the new schedule will come into effect. The promotion will run for two months, and the on-air campaign is understood to be worth £5 million. This will also be supported by a press and radio campaign, believed to be worth around £2 million.

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