Melvyn Bragg suggests that private equity would kill off ITV
April 1st, 2008, 6:21 am Hobbies Ideas
Some of ITV’s programmes are crap, Melvyn Bragg has acknowledged, but he
suggested that the company would be destroyed if it fell into the hands of a
private equity bidder.
The veteran arts broadcaster defended ITV - which reported a 35 per cent slide
in profits this week - as a %26pound;1 billion contributor to British creative
industries.
However, the host of the South Bank Show said: ITV is still in an ancient and
redundant straitjacket. Next year Google, with scarcely any regulations or
investment in British content, is set to overtake ITV in advertising.
He criticised regional quotas demanded by Ofcom, the regulator, and the
Contract Rights Renewal system, whereby the amount of money advertisers have
to commit to ITV on an annual basis is reduced when the broadcaster’s
audience share falls. Ofcom had left ITV fossilised.
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