TV off at Midnight! Back to the old days!

[Kev Mulrenan]

Shame the quality of the shows won't improve or go back to the Golden Age!

TV FACES MASSIVE SHAKE-UP



ITV chairman Michael Grade
Sunday January 18,2009
By David Jarvis Have your say(5)
TELEVISION is bracing itself for a “seismic shock” which could see or screens going blank at midnight.


Radical new plans designed to bail out cash-strapped ITV, Channel 4 and Five will revolutionise what we watch and how much we watch.

The changes will also have far-reaching implications for quality, standards and funding as ITV struggles to come to terms with falling advertising revenues which have crashed by 20 per cent.

One extraordinary suggestion is to cut back dramatically on the number of broadcast hours, an idea already being considered in the United States.

The NBC network, which has suffered a 15 per cent fall in viewers, is proposing to drop an evening’s programming in an effort to save $500million (£340million).

If that happened here it would be the TV equivalent of returning to the dark ages but it would help stem the haemorrhaging of cash ITV, Channel 4, and Five are battling against as the credit crunch bites harder.

ITV has denied such radical measures will be implemented but the industry is waiting with bated breath for a report by Ofcom, the media regulator, which will map out TV’s future.

The contents of the report, to be unveiled on Wednesday, have been one of the best kept secrets in the history of British television. But they could include proposals to axe local news, documentaries, home-made drama and children’s programmes.

Nigel Evans MP, who sits on the culture, media and sport select committee, said yesterday he had “grave concerns” for the future of British television.

He said: “Whatever the financial realities facing them, TV companies have to accept the new reality of the internet and on-demand TV.

“It is changing everything and in 10 years’ time it is highly conceivable programme schedules will be much thinner. It is happening in America already.

“No one knows what the report is going to say but action is needed and it has to mean a seismic change in the way TV works in the UK.” The Ofcom report follows secret talks between Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson and the owners of Five to discuss the possibility of a merger between the two stations.

One TV insider said: “Commercial TV is facing a drastically worsening situation, with the ad market shrinking by another 10 per cent this year.

“The old model isn’t working and the credit crunch is just accelerating the problem. Ofcom need to find a way ahead.”

Ofcom has refused to comment on this week’s report but it has outlined four key proposals. These are:

BBC, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five continue to provide the same level of public service broadcasting but with “extra public funding or fewer obligations for the commercial channels”.

ITV1, Channel 4 and Five become purely commercial in competition with the BBC.

Channel 4 and the BBC become the main public service broadcasters, with other providers bidding for limited funding.

Opening up the market to “a wide range of providers” to provide public service broadcasting competition to the BBC.

ITV chairman Michael Grade has already called for ITV to be released from its public service broadcasting remit.

But it is feared this could lead to a huge dumbing down, with the loss of local news, art shows, documentaries and home-grown British quality drama.

Mr Grade said yesterday: “Wednesday’s announcement is crucial. The objective at the end of the day is for everybody to keep on investing in what the public wants the most, which is British programmes.”

One proposal is to use cash from the BBC licence fee to pay for Channel 4, Five and ITV public service broadcasting.

But John Beyer, of Mediawatch UK, said: “We strongly oppose that proposal because every time ITV and Channel 4 get into difficulty it would fall on the licence fee payer to bail them out.

“Whatever Ofcom comes up with it is going to be a gamble and the future of British television is at stake.”

A spokesman for Channel 4 admitted the current structure of TV needed to be changed. He added: “That means seizing this big opportunity. If we turn our backs on it, that will mean we hand over content standards and quality to whatever is imported.”

An ITV spokesman denied a reduction in broadcast hours was on the cards. He said: “What is happening in America is not happening here.”

[Stephen Doran]

Will the test card be returning i wonder?

[Rich Cornock]

Jan 18, 2009 10:29:45 GMT Stephen Doran said:

Will the test card be returning i wonder?

that would be preferable to watching an evening of Big Brother

[Peter Chadwick]

TBH, 99% of the time when I switch the telly on these days it's to watch either a DVD or a video. I'd rather sit in a bath of battery acid than watch what they throw at us most of the time.

[Peter Stirling]

could you take this note to Michael Grade, thanks.

The late 1983 model was (I reckon) the best model they had.
that is an hour or so of TV am around 6am then off till 12pm to approx 12.45am week days and late night screenings on the weekend.

All these morning programmes are only making people fat, but they could have morning programmes just during the school holidays or special occasions.

and of course during off peak hours, more retro programmes out the archive please which should save tons of money.

[B Thomas]

Jan 18, 2009 13:37:41 GMT Peter Chadwick said:

TBH, 99% of the time when I switch the telly on these days it's to watch either a DVD or a video. I'd rather sit in a bath of battery acid than watch what they throw at us most of the time.

Same here. As quoted on Pink Floyd - The Wall: "I've got thirteen channels of s.h.i.t. on the TV to choose from." (Nobody Home)

[James C]

Yes bring back the testcard and proper closedowns!

[Deleted]

'ITV chairman Michael Grade has already called for ITV to be released from its public service broadcasting remit'.

- you wouldn't know it had one NOW.

'The contents of the report, to be unveiled on Wednesday...could include proposals to axe local news, documentaries, home-made drama and children’s programmes'.

and:

'Mr Grade said yesterday: “...what the public wants the most, which is British programmes.” '

Two completely contradictory statements there!

I can honestly say I couldn't care less what happens to ITV. I never watch it; it has no commitment to quality, home-grown programmes and no public service ethos. The broadcasting structure that created such memorable TV as Callan, The Prisoner, Budgie, World In Action and Armchair Theatre is long dead. I'll stick with my DVDs.

[Stephen Doran]

Yes agree all the best stuff was from the 1950s -late 80s really cant see the testcard and music returning The excuse will probaly be too xpensive or we havent got one.

[lee jones]

Well, it sounds like something is going to get the chop eventually. Wonder what that thing will be? x.x

ljones

[Simon Winters]

ITV1 is now declining so fast that we are actually witnessing its death in front of our very eyes.

The pace of the decline is truly staggering. Nothing can save it.

[Deleted]

The world would actually be a better place if ALL the channels transmitted for less than 24 hours a day! We have way too many hours of repetition, the programmes screened often not justifying their existence. One or two channels of 24 hours a day broadcasting is easily enough, with the rest being on in the evening only. Maybe a handful of children's shows / educational programmes / special events during the day.

[Alan Jeffries]

Are not the commercial stations the architechts of their own destruction? ITV seemed to have thought having those late night quiz shows was the saviour of them, but that game was soon rumbled. I have it on good authority, that during one of these phone game shows that took no calls for 2 hours. Reason, someone was leaving and they all went to the pub! Channel 4 seem to very very short sighted. With long runs of Big Brother Celebrity Big Brother can they not see that there is no resale value and no repeat value in them at all? The result of that is they have no archive of old [good?] shows to lure advertisers in.
And now after all the sniping and whining that the BBC has an unfair advantage with the license fee they suddenly want a slice of the cake. C4 has a great future....behind it! The last show on C4 should be Countdown. If nothing else it will bookend the station's history. Poor thing.
We shall soon see what Ofcom has to say.

[B Thomas]

Jan 19, 2009 12:31:18 GMT Simon Winters said:

ITV1 is now declining so fast that we are actually witnessing its death in front of our very eyes.

The pace of the decline is truly staggering. Nothing can save it.

Yes, it really is a shame. ITV used to deliver quite well - especially in the "main", remembered, areas: Tyne Tees, Yorkshire, Anglia, Rediffusion/Thames (the Northern ones in particular standing out in my memory).

What is also a shame is that (in my opinion at least) the one thing that would save it would be to "de-centralize" and return to the days of smaller, local, production companies and broadcast areas (as mentioned above) with their own "flavour" relevent to their areas. The BBC seems to have success with that approach.

To bad the suits won't do that. They don't generally like to take risks with newer, smaller companies and prefer to deal with the big players with bags of money and homogenised product. I think Granada is the only one left now...

[markboulton]

There is a much more obvious solution. Bring ITV back to being a single channel. Only a couple of nights ago I found myself watching a 2000 episode of Poirot on ITV3. I mused to myself how, up till 1997 it would have been getting shown, at the same time and on the same day, on the main, single ITV channel.

Across the ITV channels, 1-4, are a very good mix of programmes. However, because they are spread so thinly, over 4 channels which are nothing more than advertising vehicles, you end up with no one of those four channels carrying a reputation for coming up with hard-to-beat heavyweight programme mixes.

I'm sure ITV would argue that they HAVE to have four channels with lots of advertising/sponsorship padding in order to finance the few quality productions that get made (or for rights to repeats), but then that is where I would be open to the idea of ITV getting a share of the licence fee. As I say though, it would have to be strictly in order to support one great super channel from them, and I would want a clause that stipulates that part of that money is used to invest equally in the various regions, to create and maintain jobs, not just in regional news, but in regional content production. After all, one of the key ingredients missing from ITV is the fact that prime-time, network fare no longer ever comes from Birmingham, rarely comes from Manchester, Norwich or Newcastle. People keep thinking all that was lost in the regions was local news and announcers. This was not the case.

The fact is, even in media production, the way people think and operate in one part of the country won't necessarily be the same as in London. I think it was healthy to have a lot of mainstream media production being done by people who weren't part of the relatively small sect who only got to operate if they greased the appropriate parts of their friends in Dean or Wardour Street.