ITV Network Centre’s Review Of 1994

Speaking at the ITV Network Centre’s yearly review yesterday, the chairman of ITV, Leslie Hill started the proceedings by praising the role of the Network Centre. “The demands and expectations laid on the ITV systems are enormous. ITV’s response has been a quality service of range and diversity of more than 4,000 hours of programming every year.”

Key points of the review:

• ITV ended 1994 with peaktime share of 44%, 11% ahead of BBC1
• More than 90% of network budget is spent on programming produced in the UK
• In 1994, 27 of the top rated 30 dramas on British TV were on ITV
• In 1994, the volume of factual programmes rose by 50% in the mid-evening peaktime schedule.

Mr Hill also outlined the arrangements which have been made in anticipation of the retirement of Andrew Quinn, the Chief Executive of the Network Centre.

Marcus Plantin is to continue in his role as Network Director but will take on the overall managerial responsibility for the Centre and there will be an additional role created to complement his role. The position of Director of the ITV Association will cover the Association’s work in broad policy areas in the UK and Europe. When asked what the weaknesses of the scheduling were, Mr Plantin mentioned the day-time afternoon schedule, which, he said, needed to be reinforced in order to give it a network entity. He also fended off criticism when asked whether he agreed with the ITC criticism that they played it safe with the scheduling, with a firm “No” using ‘The Vacillations of Poppy Carew’ as a prime example of taking worthwhile risks with the programming schedules.

The Network Director finished by saying “It has been quite a challenge to get the network up and running, but under Andrew’s shrewd leadership we now have a very polished, streamlined operation in place.”