MGEITF 2010: A new era for ITV?

“Will ITV survive the next 10 years?” was a question asked in the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival’s special edition of ‘Question Time’.

ITV’s director of television Peter Fincham certainly thinks so. He claims ITV is going in to a “new era” led by new management, with more drama, comedy and documentary programming for ITV1.

The commercial broadcaster is set to launch a new Sunday night documentary called Perspectives and new dramas by Peter Morgan, Sally Wainwright and Anthony Horowitz.

Fincham also promised more arts programming for ITV but said there wouldn’t be a return to the world of the Southbank show.

And of course, Fincham couldn’t let his controller session pass without a mention of the World Cup. He refuted claims that ITV was blown out of the water by the BBC, using England v Algeria as an example of a ratings success for the commercial broadcaster.

However, the ‘Question Time’ panellists were less-than certain about the future direction of ITV. David Elstein was doubtful that ITV’s new management duo would be able to get their heads around the idea of the broadcaster not being wholly financed by advertising revenue. ITV has failed to come to terms with the pay-TV market, has swamped the free to air market and ITV digital has failed, he said. However, encouragingly, he was sure that ITV would be around for the next five years at least!