ITV in trouble
- Thread starter beesonthewhatnow
- Start date
_angel_
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They did it to Central before, which since the ATV days was jockeying for second place with Granada behind the London franchises in terms of producing the most ITV network programming before being closed, they produced a lot of the quality ITV's sorely missing, Central made the likes of Auf Wiederzehn Pet and Spitting Image, and ATV did The Prisoner, the Muppet Show, Thunderbirds etc. And the likes of Anglia and the various South of England franchises used to produce their fair share of national programmes.
ITV's strength was always in the regions, they're not going to gain any viewers peddling Londoncentric shite.
It all started to go wrong when Thatcher got rid of Thames in favour of Crapton
I can't believe there won't be any studios in Yorkshire (outside news and Emmerdale!)
That's a huge region that's just being cut off for programme making.
True that, and Central which was got rid off around the time of the Granada/ Crapton merger was even bigger, stretching from Tring, Oxford and Swindon in the south to Stoke, Wrexham and Skegness, now the only thing that's made in what AFAIK is the largest ITV region is Dancing on Ice
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Ha ha, I still have shares in ITV. When they fell to 60p I thought - jesus I had better not sell them, they can't get lower. Last time I looked they were about 20p
Ho ho ho.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Yes indeed, this is their biggest problem by far and has been for over 10 years. There used to be a dept at ITV that worked to tight budgets with new kit and new ways of thinking. It was a sort of experiment to see if you could make TV cheaper. The department turned a profit and even made extra money doing outside commissions.
When the first round of job cuts came about five or so years ago and ITV needed to neatly loose 40 jobs they just closed it down. Dumb arses. This place was making them a profit, by closing it they lost cash. Also, they still had to make the programmes which went to other departments or outside production companies which cost ITV more money.
I worked there but was pretty glad they got rid of it. ITV rehired me on twice the money two weeks later basically filling my old position but with a bit less work.
Dumb fucks.
Azrael
circling Airstrip One
At least Heartbeat is escapist. (Not The Royal so much: it has a penchant for killing off characters that takes it close to Casualty 190X levels of doom and gloom at times.) Besides holiday brochures from Australia, I've never got soaps: I live in overcast, gloomy England; I don't want to watch an even more miserable version for enterainment!
My sympathies to people who are loosing their jobs through ITV's incompetence, but I've no love for the company/companies. This recession is showing up corporate failings in all spheres. Like other posters have said, ITV has no innovation, no brand identity (even Five have managed to get known for US TV and football, films and Kleenex), and have made some disasterous business decisions (the afformentioned league football and ITV digital fiascos).
ITV occasionally put out enjoyable programmes like Shape, Lost in Austen and Affinity, and somehow the masterful Foyle's War survived a (more or less) full run, but overall I don't trouble that button on my remote, and it's clear that I'm not alone in that.
Oh, and any hope Mssers McPartlin and Donnelly will be caught in the wave of redundancies?
