licence fee to be used to fund ITV?

[PacificOcean]

It's a win for the consumer who doesn't have tv i.e. they don't have to pay as much every time they go to the supermarket (which is ITV's funding mechanism). Why should people without tv pay for ITV.

Isn't there only about 3,315 people in the whole country without a TV?

 

[PacificOcean]

What I find depressing is how Manchester has a fully operating local channel with TWO HOURS of live news every weekday covering all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester which broadcasts on every platform (analogue, digital, cable, satellite and online) - yet London has no equivalent and the only sources for local news is BBC London and ITV London Tonight.

Channel M is bankrolled by the (Manchester) Guardian Media Group.

But Channel M have recently laid off half their staff too and is cutting back on what it produces.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

What annoys me is that I'm being screwed for money to bolster the fortunes of idiots at ITV who completely ignored new technology and simply hoped it would either go away or not affect them. Way back around 1990 I started pointing out to everyone I knew in TV that broadcast media would either have to change dramatically to deal with the Internet and the inevitable growth of cable/satellite TV. It was obvious even then that the power would lie more with the programme makers than the broadcasters, simply because with more media available the money had to end up attached to the programme more than the channel. It was also pretty clear that the days of simply watching whatever was on offer were pretty much over.

A mate of mine at the BBC was already working on how they would handle the changed situation by 1992. Nobody I knew at ITV or ITN was in the slightest bit interested. They were still thinking in terms of endlessly squeezing production budgets on the assumption that you can always sell the cheapest TV you can get away with making. I don't begrudge the beeb getting the license fee because they at least make the effort to use it sensibly. I don't mind C4 getting a cut because they cottoned on before it was too late. ITV should be made to suffer for their stupidity, greed, laziness, and short sightedness. If that means the channel going down then so be it. I'm sure somebody else would jump at the chance of taking on a terrestrial broadcast channel, and it's not likely to be worse than ITV currently churn out.

It's not important enough to require rescuing. There are too many other options now.

Here here.

ITV were once innovators but now they are second rate copycats making knock offs of what they see other channels making. Instead of saying "hey big brother was fresh and new (when it first hit the screens) lets copy that" they should have been saying "hey big brother was fresh and new, lets make something fresh and new of our own".

All my time at ITV I wondered why they were not embracing new technology and wasting money all over the place. For instance, if you get a sound dub done in house in the cheapest room ITV has to offer it's more than twice as much as it would cost out of house. Dur.

I can edit and dub broadcast quality programmes in my bedroom on my mac mini FFS. They should have been thinking about new ways of working 15 years ago.

 

[skyscraper101]

Channel M is bankrolled by the (Manchester) Guardian Media Group.

But Channel M have recently laid off half their staff too and is cutting back on what it produces.

I'm amazed that it even exists to be honest, but despite having a fraction of the population of London - it still manages two hours a day of regional news, plus regional focused shows like Frank Sidebottom's Proper Telly Show in B/W for example

According to my calculations - we only get 1 hour of London centric news from ITV when you add up the half hour bulletin at 6pm, the ten minutes after News At Ten, the five minutes after the ITV lunchtime news and the 3 segments during GMTV. i.e. half the regional news output, from a much bigger organisation with a significantly larger population to service. It doesn't make sense.

 

[kyser_soze]

Do you know how infintessimally small the audience for a London local news channel would be? Seriously - I don't doubt for a second the DMGT have looked at it in an attempt to extend the Metro & Standard brands in the past and if they don't think they can make money from it...

 

[skyscraper101]

I'm sure it would be small, but if it works for Manchester then I can't imagine why it wouldn't work here in London if was done properly.

 

[Relahni]

ITV news is so shockingly dumbed down, I'm surprised it hasn't just been incorporated into a lifestyle cooking/houseswap format.

I Lol'd.

 

[ericjarvis]

Here here.

ITV were once innovators but now they are second rate copycats making knock offs of what they see other channels making. Instead of saying "hey big brother was fresh and new (when it first hit the screens) lets copy that" they should have been saying "hey big brother was fresh and new, lets make something fresh and new of our own".

All my time at ITV I wondered why they were not embracing new technology and wasting money all over the place. For instance, if you get a sound dub done in house in the cheapest room ITV has to offer it's more than twice as much as it would cost out of house. Dur.

I can edit and dub broadcast quality programmes in my bedroom on my mac mini FFS. They should have been thinking about new ways of working 15 years ago.

The perfect example of ITV screwing up as a network is what they did with adapting the Rebus novels. They took a set of best selling books with great characters, and real depth, and turned them into standard identikit police procedurals. Thus completely failing to capitalise on an established audience, failing to interest anyone unaware of the series, and saving not a single penny on doing it properly. It's absolutely typical.

ITV have spent the last few decades trying to make behaving like a major US network in the 70s work several decades too late. There isn't a market for cheap bland crap any more. TV either has to be quality, or salacious bland crap with celebrities.

 

[skyscraper101]

ITV was on the downhill for me as soon as they cancelled ITV Night Time.

All those classic late night shows gone like BPM, Noisy Mothers, The Beat, Carnal Knowledge, Pyjama Party, Vids, Night Shift, Cue The Music, The Big E, The Album Chart Show, The Good Sex Guide, and er.. American Gladiators.

 

[rollinder]

what was the last relatively classic programme made by ITV?

 

[YouSir]

ITV was on the downhill for me as soon as they cancelled ITV Night Time.

All those classic late night shows gone like BPM, Noisy Mothers, The Beat, Carnal Knowledge, Pyjama Party, Vids, Night Shift, Cue The Music, The Big E, The Album Chart Show, The Good Sex Guide, and er.. American Gladiators.

Vids at least was C4 not ITV.

 

[1927]

Does this mean that if ITV picks up after the recession they will hand over millions of their advertising revenue to the Beeb.

At the end of the day ITV as a company have fucked it bigtime, let them die, I cant really see how they will be missed. All the old ITV companies make programmes that they sell to the Beeb or anyone else thatw ants them, so they will continue a production companies hawking their wares around wont they?

 

[skyscraper101]

what was the last relatively classic programme made by ITV?

Cracker was the last great thing I remember but that was made by Granada for ITV. I can't remember the last actually decent thing made by ITV.

The only shows I watch anyway on ITV are Coronation Street, Champions League football, London Tonight and Harry Hill's TV Burp.

They've done well with other shows X Factor, Britain's Got talent and I'm A Celebrity in the ratings but that's about all I can think of really.

 

[sim667]

Cracker was the last great thing I remember but that was made by Granada for ITV. I can't remember the last actually decent thing made by ITV.

The only shows I watch anyway on ITV are Coronation Street, Champions League football, London Tonight and Harry Hill's TV Burp.

They've done well with other shows X Factor, Britain's Got talent and I'm A Celebrity in the ratings but that's about all I can think of really.

cracker isnt exactly what id call a classic.....

 

[mhwfc]

Of course ITV's regional news loses money, ITV don't bother to have an ad break during it!!

It's got little to do with ratings, ITV's regional news is still pretty popular getting a combined audience across the UK of around 5-6 million for the 6pm bulletin so it does better than a lot of ITV's schedule but ITV don't have an ad break so they can show more adverts during prime time.

 

[London_Calling]

ITV national news does well enough in the ratings, but particularly well when the relentless branding and advertising of the BBC is taken into account. Looks a very good product given the relative resources.