MGEITF 2006: Competition And Switchover Key To UK Television’s Future
The UK media is in the middle of seismic and accelerating changes, according to outgoing ITV chief executive Charles Allen, who delivered the MacTaggart lecture at the MGEITF on Friday night.
The self-confessed media “suit”, who admitted not wanting any of the other big jobs in UK TV, called on the UK broadcasting industry to embrace change and radical thinking, saying: “You can’t meet the big challenges by burying your head in the sand or carrying on as you always have.”
Allen suggested that the key elements for the future of the industry lay with open competition and digital switchover. “What we’ve currently got, for all its cyclical ups and downs, is really, really precious,” he said. “But, ironically, to preserve what we’ve always had, is actually going to take some pretty radical thinking.”
The top media figure also believes the rumours of ITV’s death are greatly exaggerated. “ITV1 is still the number one UK channel in peak. More people watch ITV1 than our five largest commercial competitors combined. We still scale the ratings heights,” he said.
“What’s more, ITV is not a legacy analogue business. In digital homes, we have three of the top 10 commercial channels – in Freeview, four of the top 10. We have the… strongest commercial position on DTT, and, in Friends Reunited, the UK’s top commercial web presence. We’ve built the UK’s top commercial production company – with major international success.”
Allen suggested that digital switchover would bolster the network, allowing the company “to nail the myth of ITV decline once and for all.”
He said that challenges remain for the broadcaster, with commissioning being one of its highest risk activities, admitting his real concern was “how our established broadcasting ecology may be reshaped by all this change. And, more importantly, what the hell we will be left with at the end of it all.”
He also criticised the current PSB model. “We’re still applying sticking plasters to analogue PSB, rather than developing a sustainable digital model… even Ofcom seems to have accepted that,” he said. “If further progress is to be made, we need to stop casting our thinking in terms of ‘reductions’ here and ‘cuts’ there.”
He added: “We need to approach PSB focused on what works in the era we’re entering, rather than what represents the shortest distance from where we are now. Over the last few years the ‘PSB decoy’ has obscured the real challenge.”
Allen acknowledged that ITV1’s advertising revenue this year will be lower than any year since 1993, but said that over the same period, ITV’s investment in programming was up over 50%, reaching nearly two thirds of its total ad revenue.
However, he believes that Investing more to generate less is not sustainable. “That’s not a threat or a negotiating stance for Ofcom,” he said, “but a grim fact of economic life.”
Allen feels there is a danger of trading down in the industry, with the risk of leaving a poorer viewing experience for the British public. “We’ll all have a nice digital television and a shiny set top box. We’ll have dozens of channels. We may even have high definition. But we won’t actually have anything we want to watch,” he predicted.
“We need to stop regarding every small departure from the status quo as the end of the world and look to the opportunities of digital,” Allen stated. “What we all face is bigger and scarier and more immediate [than the future of PSB]. It’s the threat to serious programme investment across the whole commercial sector.”
He believes the solutions involve revitalising the production market, opening up BBC producers to the opportunities of the commercial market, injecting a shot of creative adrenaline into the independent market and unleashing a world-class production sector in the UK. “As all our futures ultimately depend on content, I’d argue this is something we can’t afford not to do,” he said.
As for the company Allen himself has worked at for the best part of his media career, he suggested it has to be allowed to take its chances, which he believes are “pretty damn good”. He said the broadcaster must deliver more quality programmes that people watch in their millions, but feels that advertisers need to realise what they’ve got before it’s gone.
Of stepping down from his role, Allen suggested that “It became obvious that to buy the team I appointed the space to carry out our ambitious renewal strategy, and to steer ITV to its proper place in UK broadcasting, I was going to have to pull over and let someone else have a go.
“If by doing that I’ve carved out some vital turn-round time for the team and helped ITV get through some of the inevitably painful transition, then that’s what matters.”
MGEITF www.mgeitf.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com