ITV, came under fire at the 30th Edinburgh TV festival, with a candid look at the broadcasters last 50 years and discussion about its current state and outlook for the future.
Sliding audiences and a string of unsuccessful celebrity-based reality shows were raised by a panel of industry experts, with calls for the channel to commission less in-house content.
Commenting on the broadcaster’s programme strategy, Lorraine Heggessey, chief executive officer of talkback THAMES said: “I think there is a samey-ness to much of ITV programming, title after title after title, a whole load of programmes with celebrity in them, and they begin to feel the same.”
Anthony Fry, head of UK Investment Banking Lehman Brothers added: “There are a number of brands facing the same problem, Marks and Spencer, even the Conservative party. The problem is, do you try to please your existing audience or try to attract a new one?”
The chief executive of Granada, Simon Shaps, fought back at his peers’ criticism saying: “Across the broad range of ITV programmes there are some fantastic pieces of television. Perception of ITV often myopically focuses on just one or two shows, and that’s the wrong focus.”
However, despite declining ratings, Anthony Fry, head of UK investment bank, Lehman Brothers said: “If you want to advertise to a mass audience, there is no other place you can than ITV.”
Stuart Prebble, managing director of Liberty Bell seconded this opinion, claiming the channel still offered advertisers something that other channels can not, and that the nature of ITV’s output keeps “premium ad rate.”
In order for ITV to continue to generate revenue, however, Prebble pointed out the importance of multi channel strategy, saying, ” In a digital world there’s no doubt that ITV has to extend its brand, but if you’re simply exporting eyeballs away from the main channel to another with advertising at a discount then you’re not increasing revenues.”
Shaps agreed: “There is no debate over whether ITV should have a multi channel strategy. ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 are not chasing ITV1, they are designed to appeal to different audiences at different times. The test of the strategy will be to have four or five channels which appeal to pretty broad audiences, not niche interest groups.”
Earlier this year, ITV revealed that viewing share for the ITV family of channels has continued to grow on all the main platforms over the last six months, with digital terrestrial television enjoying the greatest growth, rising by 1.9% points and accounting for 27.8% of all viewing over that period (see Digital Channels Drive ITV Viewing Share).
In the company’s annual general meeting, ITV1 was shown to be the most popular channel in peak time, broadcasting the top 370 commercial programmes in 2005. ITV soaps continue to dominate the genre, with Coronation Street, consistently the most popular programme on UK television, attracting an average audience of 12 million viewers and a 50.9% share.
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