Grade hints at ITV region restructure

[BGonaSTICK]

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade has indicated that ITV1's network of regional franchises dating back to the start of independent television in 1955 could be radically overhauled in order to achieve better value for money.

Speaking at Ofcom's nations and regions conference in Cardiff, Grade said that larger regions achieve better ratings and claimed that the existence of some regions such as Border and Anglia no longer made sense relative to the audiences they served.

"In some areas, that is not a problem: the map still makes sense," Grade explained. "Wales is clearly one such case, as are the other nations.

"But elsewhere, the boundaries bear little relationship to regional and community identities on the ground. Four ITV regional programmes cover around half the English population. The other 50% are served by another 12 programmes and further sub-regional [programmes] to boot.

"It is not clear that this level of complexity and specificity is delivering maximum value for ITV viewers. It is actually some of our larger regions that have been performing most strongly in ratings and quality terms over recent years."

Fifteen companies are licensed to provide a service on Channel 3 in the UK. Of those, 11 are owned by ITV plc and it has been many years since regional identities were seen on-screen in areas served by the company. Surviving regional identities include STV in Scotland and UTV in Northern Ireland. With most of the network now owned by ITV plc there are few remaining elements of federalism in the operation of ITV1 and streamlining has been expected for some time. However, on a legal basis, ITV still consists of Ofcom-awarded regional licences, each with specific public service stipulations.

[BGonaSTICK]

...or is it more than a hint?

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade says Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster has two options as it considers its provision of national and regional programming in the approach to digital-only television. Addressing Ofcom's Nations and Regions conference in Cardiff on Friday, Grade said the first option was to accept that post digital switchover "ITV will become a streamlined UK network on the lines of Channel 4 or Five". Losing regional programming would save ITV £100m a year "with minimal revenue risk if we kept our regional sales".

Grade said that option was "not the path I want to take, but - from a strictly business perspective - it's a perfectly reasonable option". The second option - which Grade said he favoured - was to "create a new generation of sustainable national and regional services on ITV1".

Those services would be "different from what we've had in the past, but fit for purpose in today's ultra competitive world".

"I believe that, together with our massive investment in UK production, ITV's unique regional identity can be one of our two core assets in the digital age. But that will only happen if we can develop a robust and sustainable economic framework for our national and regional services."

Grade argued for an increase in ITV's advertising minutage of another "two or three minutes every hour" which would give ITV an "added incentive to invest in programming for the nations and regions". Grade also argued for a review of ITV's current regional structure, based on an analogue transmitter map in the 1950s, and "overlaid by rounds of licence renewal". The map, and the regional identities it created made little sense for half the population of England, said Grade.

[Analoguesat]

The best thing Grade could do for ITV is to give the regions their individual identities back for starters, then start bu99ering around with the boundaries.

I dont see how they can do over much though - they are still constrained by the geography of the transmitter network although I could see some area amalgamations.