ITV damned
28/07/06 09:22 Media
issues
Let's accept for the
moment that the Guardian has never had much of a
liking for ITV. The news coverage from ITN has a
right-wing slant which will be anathema to such a
famously liberal (with a lower-case 'l') paper. It
doesn't have the lofty detachment the BBC can afford
because of its state-subsidised status.
Nevertheless, predicting the downfall of the channel could be argued as a bit extreme - until you look at the recent output. Philip Schofield's new show canned after a single episode. Love Island, give me strength...
ITV could, just about, pull it around except for one thing. It's announced big cuts in drama. The BBC's star is firmly in the ascendant precisely because of drama - Doctor Who, the forthcoming Robin Hood, Life on Mars, the more realistic stuff like Sorted, The Street - it's finding that people actually like well-written and well-produced stories and they'll watch in numbers.
ITV - which gave us The Sweeney, Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, Brideshead Revisited and the Jewel in the Crown, has instead pinned its hopes on formats that are by now proven disasters or cheap dramas with stars the BBC has already nurtured and established (which kind of reasserts the BBC's mastery over the television craft). I can't honestly see a way back. I hope to be proven wrong.
Nevertheless, predicting the downfall of the channel could be argued as a bit extreme - until you look at the recent output. Philip Schofield's new show canned after a single episode. Love Island, give me strength...
ITV could, just about, pull it around except for one thing. It's announced big cuts in drama. The BBC's star is firmly in the ascendant precisely because of drama - Doctor Who, the forthcoming Robin Hood, Life on Mars, the more realistic stuff like Sorted, The Street - it's finding that people actually like well-written and well-produced stories and they'll watch in numbers.
ITV - which gave us The Sweeney, Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, Brideshead Revisited and the Jewel in the Crown, has instead pinned its hopes on formats that are by now proven disasters or cheap dramas with stars the BBC has already nurtured and established (which kind of reasserts the BBC's mastery over the television craft). I can't honestly see a way back. I hope to be proven wrong.
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