TV Mergers Attacked

The ITC’s chief executive last night attacked the recent spate of ITV takeovers, suggesting that they were driven by ambition rather than any commercial considerations. David Glencross, in a speech to the Royal Television Society said that “the advantages of size are not so clear-cut as is sometimes claimed”. He said that takeovers were driven by three factors, “In order of priority they are ambition, ambition and ambition.”

He also criticised the current ownership structure, “the ability of two large companies to merge authorised by Parliament in December added to rather than resolved the uncertainty about the future of ITV. It increased rather the possibility that the smaller companies could be left dangerously exposed if the larger companies came together in groups of two.” He also warned TV companies that programme quality should not be sacrificed for the sake of ratings. “An occasional evening dip in the ratings does not spell the end of life as we know it”.

However ITV’s Network First was praised, as was Channel 4, for being the “principal standard bearer of peak-time documentary work in the old tradition with Dispatches and Cutting Edge.”

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