Richard Desmond “will give us a modern day broadcasting solution”
Richard Desmond will “create profitability [at Channel 5] where Dawn Airey couldn’t”, according to Phil Georgiadis, chairman and chief executive at Walker Media.
Speaking at MediaTel Group’s TV Summit in London last week, Georgiadis was not the only panellist to back Desmond’s financial acumen. When asked whether Channel 5 has a chance of claiming more than a 6% market share under its new owner (when RTL failed to despite years of trying), Channel 4’s sales director Andy Barnes said “anything is possible”.
“Channel 5 will always be fourth in line but being small could be an advantage. They’ve got some quality shows, such as CSI, so as long as they’re realistic about targeting, they will be able to achieve,” he said.
Georgiadis thinks it is a no-brainer: “Desmond has already put money into 5; he can offer content that advertisers want to invest in; he will give us a modern day broadcasting solution. It doesn’t matter if he gets past 6% – he will do better with the finances than RTL ever did.”
Adam Crozier, CEO of ITV, was, if anything, even more confident – “he will make money, and very quickly,” he said. In a one on one interview with Newsline columnist Raymond Snoddy, Crozier said ITV did look in to the possibility of buying Channel 5 but a potential takeover bid would have resulted in a Competition Commission investigation (and ITV have “other priorities” at the moment).
Given the positive outlook for the future of Channel 5 under Desmond, Nick Bampton had less to justify in his decision to quit his own business The Third Way in favour of taking up a commercial sales director role at the latest Northern & Shell operation, but under some questioning from Raymond Snoddy, he admitted this was not a normal job move.
“It has been interesting to see people’s reactions to my new job… normally people would come and pat me on the back but it is like there has been a death in the family,” he said to much laughter among delegates.
“I wanted to do something a bit different. Northern & Shell is exciting – decisions are made very quickly at a centralised point and you can get things done. His success is something I want to be a part of. There is an enormous amount of work to be done in 2011. At the moment there are issues across the board – market dynamics make it very difficult to predict… But the chances for Channel 5 in this framework are very strong.”