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Post by RitaLittlewood on May 16, 2009 13:00:10 GMT
From the Stage:
ITV plans further savings of £40m
Published Thursday 14 May 2009 at 14:51 by Matthew Hemley
ITV is to make additional cost savings of £40 million over the next two years after announcing today its total revenues had dropped by 14% in the first three months of this year.
Click to learn more...
The broadcaster has already announced savings of £155 million for 2009, but said today that it would be “committing to a further £40 millon of cost savings across the business from 2010”.
As a result, total cost savings it will aim to achieve in 2010 will be £215 million, and £285 million in 2011.
Attempts to make savings at ITV have already resulted in 600 redundancies since March, and seen the closure of its Kirkstall Road Studios in Leeds.
In an interim management statement issued today, ITV said group revenues for the first three months of the year were £425 million, down from £492 million in the same period in 2008.
Its television advertising revenues fell 15%, just slightly better than the total UK television advertising market, which was estimated to be down 16%.
Executive chairman Michael Grade, who is to step down by the end of the year, said the television advertising market “remains weak”.
“In March, we gave details of ITV’s plans for responding to the difficult market conditions we face. We are making good progress in implementing these plans,” he said.
Grade added that the board was continuing to “take the steps necessary to steer the company through these challenging times”.
Today’s statement also revealed that the ITV board intends to appoint a new chief executive by the end of the year.
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Post by CG Wendy on May 16, 2009 14:42:54 GMT
*sigh*
They still won`t listen to us about dropping the amount of episodes in Corrie and Emmerdale. Will they ever listen to us?
Worst thing they ever did was to drop Corrie as a sponser to Corrie
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Post by RitaLittlewood on May 16, 2009 15:10:20 GMT
No they won't. It was THE most obvious money-saving thing they could have done. Less eps would have improved quality, possibly ratings since you don't really miss anything these days, and advertising revenue. They would have also saved a bloody fortune they could have invested in other programming. Arses! ITV deserves to disappear forever!
Patsy
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Post by RitaLittlewood on May 28, 2009 19:38:46 GMT
From the Stage:
Fry and Phillips lambast ITV for South Bank Show closure
Published Tuesday 26 May 2009 at 15:20 by Matthew Hemley
Presenter Stephen Fry and choreographer Arlene Phillips have become the latest high-profile industry figures to criticise ITV’s decision to axe long-running series The South Bank Show, with both expressing concern about the future of arts programming on television.
Their comments follow those made by Michael Parkinson, who earlier this month questioned the ongoing quality of television without the flagship ITV show.
Speaking exclusively to The Stage, Fry labelled ITV’s decision to bring the series to end next year a “terrible pity” and claimed the broadcaster’s bosses had taken the decision in a bid to show shareholders that ITV is still worth investing in, and is not being run by “airy fairy, artsy people”.
He said “It’s a deliberate act on the part of those now controlling ITV - in other words the financial controllers - to show the city that nothing is sacred and that they are prepared to deconstruct the model of ITV so completely that they will even get rid of something like The South Bank Show. ITV is sending a message that says, ‘Don’t give up on us, we are not a lot of airy, fairy artsy people. We are serious men of business in the new, cold world of broadcasting and we are even prepared to ditch something as respected and good as The South Bank Show’.”
Fry - who was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, the legacy of which was explored in a recent episode of The South Bank Show - said he was worried about arts programming in the UK without the presence of the series, and claimed removing it left a shortfall of arts programming in the schedules.
“There is a great curiosity, passion and enthusiasm for he arts than there ever was. So it’s a shame there is less space now for broadcasting to reflect that,” he said.
His comments were echoed by choreographer Phillips, who said she worried that removing The South Bank Show would mean the arts world as a whole would suffer.
“When the arts are not shown, how do we broaden people’s minds so they see that the world is not just a world of The X Factor, but that there are other ways to hear wonderful voices singing. That the world is not just a world of Strictly Come Dancing, but that there is the most extraordinary contemporary dance performances going on all around the country. It’s only by giving the arts a position on television that people will be exposed to them,” she said.
Phillips, a judge on BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing and whose choreography credits include stage versions of Flashdance and Saturday Night Fever, said other broadcasters such as the BBC now needed to find space in their schedules for programmes to replace The South Bank Show, and claimed series like The One Show should have a weekly segment dedicated to the arts.
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Post by sootycat on May 29, 2009 10:46:17 GMT
I have to say I won't lose any sleep over the axing of TSBS.
I have never watched it, and I don't know anyone who has.
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Post by RitaLittlewood on May 29, 2009 11:13:51 GMT
I used to when I was younger. It was a really good show and I'll always remember the one about Stan Laurel. But over the past 5-10 years it's not been the same. Less serious and more bubblegum pap.
Patsy
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Post by Nick on May 29, 2009 17:02:42 GMT
Like everything else it has been dumbed down
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Post by RitaLittlewood on May 29, 2009 17:13:50 GMT
That was the word I was thinking of, Nick. My brain wasn't functioning. I've rarely watched it since they started covering crap.
Patsy
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Post by sallywebster on May 29, 2009 17:33:51 GMT
I have to say I won't lose any sleep over the axing of TSBS. I have never watched it, and I don't know anyone who has. Me neither Sooty. I think the only one I ever watched was a doco they did about Corrie in the mid 1990s. |
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Jul 1, 2009 14:18:51 GMT
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Post by Nick on Jul 1, 2009 14:34:37 GMT
If they stopped ramming trailers down your throat and having ad breaks every five minutes then maybe more people will watch
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Jul 1, 2009 17:49:03 GMT
They've done that years. By the time the thing comes on people are pissed off.
Patsy
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Post by Nick on Jul 1, 2009 20:03:05 GMT
Not Half
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Aug 1, 2009 12:03:00 GMT
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Aug 6, 2009 16:41:04 GMT
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Post by sootycat on Aug 7, 2009 11:19:59 GMT
And now they have taken a hammering by selling off Friends Re-United at a £105 million loss.!
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Aug 7, 2009 21:44:12 GMT
Hehe. I think that's funny really. I joined once (but never paid) and found it quite boring. This was pre-ITV. Left before their takeover.
Patsy
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Aug 28, 2009 13:35:49 GMT
Wasting money remaking Wuthering Heights. WHY?  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Patsy |
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Post by Nick on Oct 2, 2009 13:59:41 GMT
Just read this courtesy of AOL News..
Regulator Ofcom has imposed an £80,000 fine after a prize-fix incident at ITV1's British Comedy Awards which wrongly named Ant and Dec as the People's Choice winners.
The fine to Channel TV, which was responsible for ensuring the show met standards, also covered appeals for viewers to continue voting even though polling had closed as the shows, in both 2004 and 2005, had already been recorded.
The incidents came to light after a number of TV phone-voting scandals which led to a shake-up in the industry.
Ant and Dec were given their award in 2005, even though the Catherine Tate Show received the highest number of votes. The production team overrode the popular vote.
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Oct 2, 2009 22:39:54 GMT
Too lenient.
Patsy
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Nov 11, 2009 13:00:12 GMT
ITV have REALLY lost the plot now. Ant & Dec £10 million? Jordan £350,000 to go in the jungle? Yet they say they can't afford this, that and the other! Patsy |
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Dec 11, 2009 10:34:38 GMT
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Post by CG Wendy on Dec 11, 2009 23:08:51 GMT
Its those reality shows that are the cancer of British tv and must be cut out. But ITV/BBC/C4 won`t because they`re cheap to make.
There was only 1 British reality show that I liked - Castaway. And that didn`t last long.
I only watch 2 US reality shows and they are both originals....... Survivor and The Amazing Race. Survivor is in its 19th season (with the 20th season following almost immediatly)and The Amazing Race just finished its 17th season.
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Aug 2, 2010 21:47:29 GMT
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Post by CG Wendy on Aug 19, 2010 17:07:30 GMT
Our new tv is HD compatable but I wouldn`t pay extra to watch a show I like. We pay enough for DirecTv as it is, and they have HD channels though I don`t bother with them.
Personally I don`t see what all the fuss is about.
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