Richard Life – Television Week / 13th November 1992
ITV is sticking to a winning formula with a few seasonal adjustments, reports Richard Life.
With its new winter schedule, which was finalised by new network director Macus Plantin last week, ITV is subscribing to the maxim “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Or as Plantin put it: “Evolution, not revolution, is uppermost in my mind.”
This year the network has increased its audience share to 43.1%, compared with BBC1’s 32%. To have radically altered the schedule would have meant taking a risk unwanted both by viewers and advertisers.
“This is a schedule that is going to maintain ITV’s share of viewing in the first quarter,” says Ian Lewis, programme evaluation manager at agency Zenith Media. “Most are returning dramaand entertainment series such as Inspector Morse and Blind Date, that have a proven ability to gain audiences of 10 million plus, and therefore it a very safe and accessible schedule.”
However, there are a few notable exceptions to the no change philosopy.
The first is the extra edition of The Bill on Friday nights, which Lewis predicts ‘is likely to see a significant increase in viewing to ITV because it will be able to maintain a high level of the audience ITV pulls in for Coronation Street’. This change is particularly good news for LWT, which will be able to sell around The Bill for the first time. Indeed, the network as a whole will be able to increase its Friday evening revenue – particularly from the lucrative retail sector.
Another change to Friday evening is the rescheduling of The ITV Chart Show from Sunday evening. The success of Channel 4’s The Word in attracting the coveted young adult viewer has obviously been noted by network executives.
The other significant change affecting the weekend is the disappearance of the ‘God Slot’ and its replacement with films. Viewing for Highway has been small compared with ITV’s peak-time average, allowing both Chanel 4, with The Cosby Show and The Wonder Years, and Sky One, with The Simpsons, to exploit this traditionaly ‘soft’ part of ITV’s schedule.
ITV’s scheduling of a comedy to start Sunday evening peak time has meant it has struggled to build an audience quickly. The arrival of blockbuster films from 6.30pm will give a much more dynamic platform for the evening.
The most obvious change in the network comes at breakfast with the arrival of GMTV. The surprise success of Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast means that GMTV may have a harder time attracting viewers. During the recent half-term school holidays The Big Breakfast beat TV-am in the battle for young viewers and Channel 4 plans to repeat the success over Christmas.
“I would say that unless GMTV launches with a very, very strong programme content that immediately attracts viewer and advertisers, they will be the newcomer with the most to worry about.
Although both the BBC and Channel 4 have not declared their Winter schedules, both are expected to make few changes, although BBC1, fresh from beating off the attack of Gladiators with Noel’s House Party, is expected to maintain its Saturday evening momentum.
But Channel 4 will introduce a new factor to late Saturday evening with the launch of the Jonathan Ross-hosted entertainment show Saturday Zoo.
While the structure of the ITV schedule remains largely unchanged, the new season will bring a number of new dramas, comedies and current affairs programmes. New dramas include Central’s Seekers, written by Lynda La Plante; Jilly Cooper’s Riders from Anglia; and Carlton commission Head Over Heels.
ITV has acknowledged its weakness is comedy, a problem it will seek to remedy with the launch of Carlton’s Comedy Playhouse in March and with Meridian commission Full Stretch.
With the Network Centre not yet fully operational there is a huge log jam of programme proposals within ITV and the independent sector. Some ITV programmes are approaching the end of their shelf-life, and it is to these new ideas that the network will have to turn to maintain its share, particularly against an increasingly competitive satellite and cable market.
The question is whether ITV is prepared to maintain its expenditure to replace its ageing output, by no means a certainty given the conflict that has already broken out over the 1994 budget.
If the contractors do settle their differences and agree to increase expenditure, the winter of 1994 may be a somewhat different propositiion to this year’s tried and tested schedule.
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