ITV’s management can quite rightly be accused of crying wolf all too frequently in the past as it sought to protect its dominant position, but if there was ever any doubt that Rupert Howell was over egging it when he said that it was ‘scrapping for its life’ it must surely be dispelled by its results published today.
Why won’t somebody do something to help it? After all it’s not, like Channel 4 - or indeed numerous other companies in various sectors - wielding the begging bowl in front of Peter Mandelson thereby plunging the country into further debt.
All it wants is a lighter regulatory touch and the ability to throw off some of the shackles that are decades out of date and then it continue to deliver value for advertisers, entertainment for viewers, jobs for (British?) workers and money back into the economy. Sure, there has been some appalling mismanagement in the past – ITV Digital and the purchase of Friends Reunited the most notable – but surely it has suffered enough from the sins of its former management team.
If anyone cares about media plurality as well as the future of commercial television in the country they should pressure Ofcom to do something, and fast.
To leave it to die or be taken over by a foreign media conglomerate would be nothing short of negligent. Or does the government really think there are no votes in bothering to take the small measures that would save it?
