Our favourite ITV shows ‘under threat’… What’s your opinion?
As you’ve probably heard, the Chief of ITV, Michael Grade, announced yesterday that more than 600 jobs would be cut across the ITV owned network and group of companies. He also announced that following a 41% drop in revenue from advertising, the company had to make radical cutbacks.
Mr Grade was quoted in The Sun yesterday as saying, “Current conditions in the advertising market are the most challenging I have experienced in over 30 years in UK broadcasting.
“This is reflected both in our financial results for 2008 and the tough actions we are announcing today”.
Apparently a large part of ITV’s planned savings will be via cuts to its £1 billion programming budget, which will be reduced by £65 million during this year…
Grade added that, “Costs will be cut through efficiencies and on network programme and regional news savings.”
He also revealed that ITV is looking for potential buyers for its Friends Reunited social networking site as well as its online business directory Scoot. It’s also expected that ITV’s Local broadband service – which provides local news content – will be scrapped.
So how is all this going to affect our favourite shows as well as the economy in general?
The fact is, the implications of the current cutbacks – as well as any future ones, if the economic situation continues to deteriorate – could have an enormous impact on not only our top ITV shows but employment and revenue in general, both in the UK and across the world.
Just imagine how many people and companies – other than actors and film crews – rely on ITV and its offshoot companies? Every business imaginable actually could well be adversely affected; from catering companies to cleaners, joiners to drivers, clothing manufacturers to office supplies, airlines to builders… the knock-on effects could be disastrous for millions of people.
So let’s take a look at how some of the biggest ITV shows are likely to be immediately affected…
X Factor: Simon Cowell’s contract with ITV for the sole rights to broadcast the X Factor may not be renewed, so we may well see the show disappearing from ITV, although I would imagine that any number of other channels or networks would happily snap up the rights to air the show.
Apparently, Simon Cowell currently has a ‘golden handcuffs’ deal with ITV that’s worth £20 million but as that’s due to expire in December of this year, and it looks like there’s a good chance it won’t be renewed.
Ant and Dec: Like Simon, telly’s favourite duo also have a deal with ITV that’s worth £20 million and they’ve already let it be known that when their current contract expires, they may not renew it; whether by choice or as part of ITV’s cutbacks wasn’t made clear in reports about the pair.
Coronation Street and Emmerdale: Michael Grade announced that as part of the cutbacks, the production budgets of each of the shows would be cut by 5% and part of that reduction in expenditure will be made from the actors salaries. The filming of Corrie was in fact halted yesterday so that the cast and crew could watch Michael Grade via a live video link as he explained how the cutbacks will affect them.
It seems that part of the cutbacks may see the closure of ITV’s studios in Leeds, although apparently the set of Emmerdale will be retained, so I assume the company would either rent the space from any prospective buyer of the studios or sell off the rest of the buildings and land.
ITV insiders told the BBC that they expect the Corrie set will be moved to “a more modern development.” The source also added “It’s commonly felt that the head office and Coronation Street set is no longer fit for modern television.”
Click here to see what Emmerdale actor Chris Chittell – who plays Eric Pollard – had to say about the cuts.
ITV Drama: Many of the nation’s best loved drama series will be affected and it’s been revealed that Wild At Heart will probably be ‘shelved’ since filming on location in South Africa is considered “too expensive”. However, it seems the cast and crew of the drama has not yet been informed whether filming will start on the new series this summer or not.
It’s already been confirmed however that ITV is definitely shelving Yorkshire-based dramas Heartbeat and The Royal.
Additionally, as we reported yesterday, This Morning is to be mothballed throughout the summer as part of the cost cutting exercise.
Behind the scenes: Last year, over 1,000 jobs were lost throughout ITV with the majority affecting admin staff, however, ITV employees now have the added worry that it’s been revealed the company is “struggling” with its £2.6 billion pension fund and “debt burden”.
It’s expected that around 150 of the latest job losses will affect ITV employees in Leeds and “several hundred” jobs are expected to be axed at ITV’s London offices.
The chiefs of both ITV3 and ITV4 are reportedly going to be made redundant, although TV executive Peter Fincham – pictured on the left – is expected to take on the role of overseeing all the channels as well as programme production, so his salary will without doubt increase significantly.
Mind you, he’ll have a big remit as it was also announced last week that ITV had “drawn up a plan” to merge with Channel 4 and Channel Five in a bid to spread the costs between the three TV networks.
Union’s anger: Gerry Morrissey, head of union BECTU – which is an acronym for Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union – says there could well be a number of strikes in the pipeline to protest against the cutbacks. He said that ITV staff are presently, “The most demoralised workforce in British television”.
He also refuted ITV’s claims that the cutbacks were as a result of the economic downturn.
“This is because of the mismanagement of ITV and has been going on for longer than the current credit crunch” he told the BBC.
He added that he believed the company’s management had been, and still were, “More interested in looking after shareholders and senior management rather than staff and viewers”.
Another BECTU official, Sharon Elliott, added, “This is a slap in the face for a loyal and skilled workforce, and seriously undermines ITV’s credibility in respect of its so-called commitment to the regions”
The union has also urged the government to intervene to “stop further damage” to ITV programmes and the affects on staff.
So what do you think? Have ITV mismanaged their budgets and given their top executives too much in the way of pay and perks, or is this current situation really what Michael Grade says it is – a reflection of how almost every business in the UK is being affected by the ‘credit crunch’?
And should the government become involved – as they did with Northern Rock for example – to ‘shore up’ the company?
Do you think we’re going to start seeing a drop in the quality of our top ITV shows, and would you support actors and other ITV staff if they went on strike, even if that meant the suspension of our favourite soaps and dramas?
Let us know your opinion!
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I cannot believe they are taking off the most decent shows on I.T.V
get rid of millionare, ant and dec, x factor and all the other reality shows and thenn maybe you could put more films on I.T.V has certainly gone down the pan the past few years, have the time theres nothing on your station thats worth watching the bill has had its day and a lot of the times all you are showing is repeat after repeat,
[...] has been forced to make cuts across the board, by cutting wages, laying off staff and dropping unpopular shows. In the grand scheme of things a [...]
I for one will not lose any sleep over the demise of ITV.
Heartbeat viewers were constantly messed about by ITV and their ridiculous scheduling. An episode here an episode there, three episodes in a row when they really wanted to spoil us ! Many many viewers wrote in and emailed to complain about this, what did ITV do ? nothing !
What looked like gross ineptitude has in fact been revealed as a particularly underhand method of getting the ratings to tumble, thereby giving the ‘excuse’ to axe Heartbeat.
From what I can gather the cast and crew seem to have been treat appallingly by ITV, for those people to find out about their jobs (or lack of) from the media instead of from their employer is just despicable and pathetic.
Whether a fan of Heartbeat or not there is the principle involved. Heartbeat just happens to be a major casualty They don’t care about fans or employees.
ITV – Incompetent, Thoughtless and(very)
Vexing !
I absolutely agree. I know that a lot of people feel that Heartbeat is past its sell by, but that’s not true for a lot of people.
The point is, it could be anyone’s favourite show. The viewers are suffering because of ITV’s mismanagement – what type of organisation deliberately messes up the scheduling of one of its most popular programmes, resulting in poorer viewing figures simply because people either never knew when it was going to be on, or lost interest because it was impossible to get into it! And it’s less than a year ago that they sent cast and crew to Australia, so surely they had money problems then?
ITV (does the I now stand for ‘inept’) never even had the grace or decency to respond to people’s enquiries as to why Heartbeat was being shown in short bursts – if they had any respect for the viewer they would have kept us in the picture…no pun intended.
I amongst millions of others are angered by the axing Of Heartbeat and The Royal. ITV have consistently mucked around with the scheduling and they know that this will lose viewers and therefore give them an excuse to axe it as they will say it doesn’t have enough viewers to justify the cost of the production. Heartbeat is a solid part of drama on a Sunday night and without it ITV are nothing. I am so angry in the way the cast, crew and viewers have been treated. You put more cost into other programmes that aren’t worth watching, ie Wild at Heart which is filmed in Africa, not a tiny village in gorgeous English countryside. It is not just the cast and crew who are going to suffer but also the village of Goathland where Heartbeat is filmed and the people who live there and rely on their income coming from this programme and tourists that flock there to see it filmed. ITV Do not care what the viewers want and want to watch, otherwise they would take our comments into consideration before axing the programme and the fact that thousands have signed petitions etc. Absolutely Disgusting behaviour.
As a PS to my post, I’d like to reiterate what Nicky says above – ITV proved their total lack of class by not even telling the cast and crew about their decision before it appeared in the newspapers.
Confirmation if any were needed of their complete lack of respect for viewers and employees.
I am disgusted with the way ITV’s mismanagement has led to us the viewers losing some of our most loved shows like Heartbeat and has already been pointed out there behaviour towards the cast and crew was awful, the way the found out they were to loose their jobs was terrible and just shows that ITV have no respect for anyone.
I am disgusted at ITV, they are a mickey mouse company- they cannot do anything right, the BBC has had money problems but are dealing with it in the way ITV should have done- by taking pay cuts and lowering budgets on their productions- I hope ITV goes under- sorry to sound harsh, but they have treat their viewers like crap with disregard and no respect to their feelings and what THE VIEWERS- you know the ones that actually are keeping ITV going- actually want.
Only today I saw yet ANOTHER cooking programme that is exactly like the one that has just come off air a week ago- why is money being wasted on pathetic shows such as this?? It is amazing what ITV will spend their money on and what they won’t.
I hope that the BBC might take on Heartbeat – as to let it go would be a travesty, then the BBC should show ITV how to should be done.
Have fun on your way down ITV!!!
whatever dawn
I think you speak for the majority, Dawn.
i think that they should cancel heartbeat as it is not very popular
“Heartbeat is not very popular with whom ???” it may not be popular with you Kiran but it is very popular and not only among the older generation !
Whether one is a fan of HB or not is a matter of personal taste, but surely no-one can argue with the facts – ITV treat viewers and employees with nor respect whatsoever, they were sneaky and underhand about the whole thing.
I agree Dawn, ITV have no idea how to run a tv company, I’d like the BBC (anyone) to take over HB, at least the BBC have a little bit of respect for the viewers.
I wonder where people get their information wrong, or do they just decide that everyone else must think the way they do.
HB has fans from early teens to 80s and 90s.
Those people deserve to be catered for, and even non-fans should recognise the totally unacceptable way that ITV has treated it’s viewers (it could be anyone’s favourite show next) and it’s employees.
That should have send “where people get their information FROM…”
Drunk in charge of a keyboard again…..
I think Wild at Heart should definatley come back for another series if not more as it is a great show which rakes in a lot of viewers and has inspired many people.
Thanks.
[...] isn’t much of a secret that ITV are becoming more cash strapped by the day. They have cut production on many major shows, laid off thousands of regional staff and reportedly slashed the wages of some of their major [...]