ITV results are bad news, but what are they going to do about it?

ITV results are bad news, but what are they going to do about it?

Well it seems blame the regulator, the economic conditions, the growth in digital TV and the internet.

Have blamed everything it seems tat they are going to cut cost and look at revenue generation.

Cutting costs is what Charles Allan did for several years. Outside observers could say that this drove out creativity, drove away viewers and eventually led to where they are today.

Carolyn Fairbairn (ITV’s group strategy director) says that the TV advertising model is broken. That advertising rates in the UK are the lowest in Europe. She was speaking at the London Business School (3rd March 09) in a debate titled “Future of UK PSB Television”

Is the advertising model broken? There are lots of commercially funded TV channels in the UK that seem to be doing OK. Sure its harder but ITV has failed to adapt so from their perspective it is broken.

Who cares? No one really ITV is not delivering the audiances that the advertisers want or the programming the viewers want. Michael Grade, in an interview today (BBC Radio 4) when questioned about his strategy of using content creativity, to grow the business, said, that ITV were creating content for which they could generate a return on investment for their shareholders. The interviewer queried, “So what about the viewers?” To which Micheal Grade had a long pause (almost “I hadn’t thought about that” moment) before claiming that the content was attracting audience. NOT ENOUGH OF THE RIGHT ONES MICHAEL.

The denial of what is going on is what happens in many industries where the dynamics change and the incumbent/dominant players are unable/willing to make the changes necessary. Example the British Motorcycle industry when the Japanese arrived. The mechanical digger industry when hydraulics came along and the computer industry as generic PC’s took over from mainframes and narrow word processing systems.

ITV strategy must be to get cheaper home grown talent and innovative content. Don’t pay through the nose for Ant and Dec for Simon Cowell.

Use ITV 3 and 4 - try an Opendoor slot for independent producers, armature groups and University media departments (maybe even consumers) to showcase programmes. A talent slot rather than a talent show. Themed so that it isn’t random what consumers will see – Comedy, Drama, Music etc This may not be right but try something other than blaming everything else.

Put your viewers first and if they come back so will the advertisers.

Just ahead of the curve BT and Ch4

Comforting to know that I may be just ahead of the curve.

BT emerges as suitor to merge with cash-strapped Channel 4