The business of Grade

Writing in Today's Observer Richard Watchman asks

How long can Grade make the honeymoon period last?

He comments that institutional investors at ITV have asked for a series of checks and balances to be put in place to curb his influence.

"ITV is a publicly owned company, so the City, being what it is, will want results sooner rather than later, perhaps earlier than the new man can deliver. Therein lies the tension: in order to reverse ITV's decline, Grade needs to invest in programmes and a new digital and broadband strategy to win back viewers, especially the 18- to 34-year-olds. That will take time and money, but will the short-termist City buy it? "

Paul Durman writing in the Sunday Times says

"DESPITE the wave of optimism flowing through the corridors of ITV, nobody is under any illusion that the company is suddenly out of the woods. ITV’s big problem is the fragmentation of the television audience in a multi-channel world. ITV1’s share of total viewing this year will be about 20%, or about half the level it managed in 1992. "


Its main competition now is multichannel Tv and the Internet and Grade's prefered fix of signing highly paid acts will be no quick fix.Most of next years programmes have been or being made.