Ditching public-service broadcasting could save ITV an estimated £400m a year

Ditching public-service broadcasting could save ITV an estimated £400m a year.”Crucially, what we all have to realise is that the government of the day would not be in a position to stop ITV from doing this,” he said.The outlook for ITV is bleak unless it is helped, Mr Dyke said, arguing that the proposed merger of the two big ITV companies, Carlton and Granada, now before the competition authorities, should be allowed to go ahead “on reasonable terms”. Programmes such as The South Bank Show or John Pilger documentaries would vanish from the schedule.ITV could do this, Mr Dyke said, in a few years’ time once 80 per cent of homes can receive digital television, which would mean it could abandon its analogue licences and broadcast as a digital service, with no public service commitments. That way, you get a proper balance of influence; that way, no one player can call too many of the shots; that way, no one player is too powerful,” Mr Dyke said.A struggling ITV would be forced to abandon its expensive public service commitments, which include regional programming, children’s shows, current affairs and the arts, he warned. “A healthy broadcasting market in the UK needs a third gorilla alongside the BBC and Sky, and that third gorilla should be an advertiser-funded, free-to-air television group at its heart. Over the last two years, the commercial network has seen audiences plummet and advertising revenues collapse and has had to walk away from its ITV Digital venture, taking a £1bn loss.A weak ITV is not in the BBC’s interests, or in the interests of the industry and the public, he said. The commercial network, which is struggling financially, pays the sum every year to the Treasury for the use of its broadcast spectrum.However, executives from other media suggested that Mr Dyke’s comments were motivated by self-interest.

It has been proposed by industry figures, such as Lord Bragg, that some of the £2.7bn that the BBC receives in licence fee revenue a year be re-distributed to other public service broadcasters, that is to ITV, Channel 4 and possibly Five. If ITV is given a £300m tax break, the case for it to receive some portion of the licence fee may be watered down.Mr Dyke said ITV had got itself into a “devastating” financial position. The spokeswoman said the move was routine and nothing could be read into it.. The director general of the BBC warned yesterday that the future of ITV as a public service broadcaster – and programmes such as The South Bank Show – was under threat unless the network was absolved of £300m a year in taxes. We never said there would be.”The corporation also confirmed Mr Gilligan had been taken off active reporting duties to enable him to prepare for the inquiry.

The BBC had hinted it would investigate the apparent omission and the suggestion that Mr Gilligan compromised a colleague’s sources.It said last week: “We are looking at this e-mail and will deal with it in the context of the Hutton inquiry.” But a BBC spokeswoman told The Independent last night: “There will be no inquiry. One appeared to reveal that Dr Kelly was the source for another report for a colleague, Susan Watts, the science editor of BBC2’s Newsnight.
After an Gilligan e-mail to an FAC member was handed over by the Liberal Democrats, the Hutton Inquiry asked the BBC why it was not submitted in a bundle of about 300 documents. The Hutton inquiry last week heard he suggested questions to be put to David Kelly at the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) on 15 July, two days before the scientist’s apparent death. Andrew Gilligan is to escape an internal BBC inquiry into his secret contacts with a Common select committee. For the first time there is an easy and affordable way of making this treasure trove available to all.”While entire entertainment shows will be available at the flick of a switch, because programme sales on DVD and video are a lucrative income source for the BBC, clips from top shows may be available.Mr Dyke said the plan was to allow “parts” of programmes – where the BBC owned the rights – to be downloaded along with a licensing system, a “massive step forward” in opening the archives to the public that originally funded them.A BBC spokesman said there was no fixed date for the launch of the archive.. “Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible to the public because there hasn’t been an effective mechanism for distribution.”But the digital revolution and broadband are changing all that. Decades of classic television recordings are to be opened to the public after the BBC announced it will make “the best television library in the world” available on the internet.
Groundbreaking wildlife footage and clips from well-known shows will be among the selected material to be released from the video vaults.The project, called the BBC Creative Archive, was outlined by the Director-General Greg Dyke at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, but details have yet to be finalised.”The BBC probably has the best television library in the world,” he said.

It is thought this will offer some content not available on terrestrial television, but not the top sports and movies channels, at a much lower price point.The remarks are likely to be seen as significant as Sky has, in the past, fiercely resisted the notion that it will run out of the kind of customer it targets.. Longer term, Sky said it was looking for 12 or 13 million households.In a question and answer session, which followed the keynote address Mr Ball gave at the festival, he said: “After 8 million [homes], picking up the next 4 million or so, will there still be the same high-ARPU people there? Probably not.” Referring to the basic multi-channel service, Freeview, which does not charge, Mr Ball said Sky may adopt a sort of “Freeview plus” service. Earlier this month, Sky set a target of 8 million subscribers by the end of 2005 It has a long-standing target of ARPU of £400 by that date. The equipment required to receive Sky, which is provided free to the customer, is costly and its premium content is also expensive, leaving it dependent on high-spending subscribers to recoup these costs and make a profit.However, Mr Ball, speaking at the annual Edinburgh Television Festival, said Sky will have to “slice and dice” in the future to continue adding customers, by promoting packages aimed at lower-spending consumers.He said there was still plenty of growth left in the market, as pay-TV penetration in the UK is around half the level reached in the US. Mr Ball has said that one of the reasons that rival ITV Digital failed is that it chased subscriber growth at the expense of the quality of subscriber. Though cheaper packages have been available, these have never been promoted by the company.The high-ARPU model has set Sky apart, and won plaudits in the City.