Comments on: Making the Grade http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?p=1977 Contemporary and classic British TV Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:09:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.2 By: Adrian Partington http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?p=1977&cpage=1#comment-114 Adrian Partington Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:15:37 +0000 http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?p=1977#comment-114 I think that ITV1 is bar far the weakest of all the ITV channels. Presumably the other ITV channels are free to cherry pick from the best of ITV past and present, while ITV1 is lumbered with the mainly fairly ropey current output.

I believe there needs to be a debate as to whether many channels should actually broadcast 24 hours a day – they seem to regard doing so as a sign of commercial virility, yet it’s done at the expense of filling the daytime and early hours slots with any old rubbish..

]]> By: Jon Haw http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?p=1977&cpage=1#comment-51 Jon Haw Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:49:01 +0000 http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?p=1977#comment-51 Of course, ITV also wants to dump it’s regional commitments – and to some extent they’re right. Although regional telly has a special place in many of our hearts, really it’s always been a bit pointless as the regions are defined by transmitter footprints and bare no relation to any administrative borders or areas of shared local identity. Take the regional news – in order to find out what’s going on here in Lincoln, viewers have to sit through a load of stuff about Nottingham, Leicester and Derby that they have little interest in – just as I’m sure the people of Nottingham, Leicester and Derby have little interest in what’s happening in Lincoln. Regional news producers know this, which is why they end up doing “human interest” and jokey stories – so as not to alientate any part of the audience. Genuine local news, politics etc rarely get a look in. The result is that regional news falls between two stools – neither small enough to be of genuine local interest, nor big enough to have the importance and gravitas of national news.

So here’s an idea – why not let ITV drop all of it’s expensive regional obligations but, in return, they must give up a few selected timeslots and 1 minute of advertising in primetime every day. A network of LOCAL (not regional) franchises can then be advertised – one for each county in the UK. The franchises would be given these daily timeslots (say 12.30-1pm, 5.30-6.30pm, 11-11.30pm) to produce genuinely local news magazines. They would sell local advertising during their timeslots, along with the 1 minute in primetime which would help subsidise them. ITV could then concentrate on big national shows, and audiences would get a local news service that actually reflects their area.

Just a thought….

]]> By: Rob Williams http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?p=1977&cpage=1#comment-42 Rob Williams Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:45:06 +0000 http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?p=1977#comment-42 Totally agree with you, ITV have got spare capacity when CITV closes at 6pm. So why not can’t be ITV Gold, thus taking programmes off ITV 3 and 4, making 3 a lifestyle channel and 4 a dedicated sport channel…

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