If Tony Ball takes over ITV, the last embers of regionality will be stubbed out for good. It will be hugely controversial, but let's face it - TV is changing, it's no longer all on our sets. I can see all regional offices being closed. Selling off ITV Studios is probably a good move too. The in-house idea was never great, and it simplifies things and would probably improve programme content with ITV1 100% commissioning from "indies".
If I were Tony Ball I would also see the potential of ITV.com and how it is not achieving its potential. He needs to order some hot design talent and engineers to - literally - start from scratch, creating a BBC-esque architecture for the online offering and truly bringing ITV to the web. They have been building on a turd for long enough, and even if they spend £50m on the most comprehensive rebuild, it will be positioning ITV.com for the future, a future it is quickly heading to.
As has been announced, the BBC are making the iPlayer technology open, so integrated into this all-new web portal would be the launch of ITV iPlayer, which would be a landmark move. The last 30 days of ITV shows, online, on a high-quality, beautiful, AD-SUPPORTED platform. I think ITV's online revenue could be much higher than it is, if the site were more optimised. ITV needs to start thinking big with online. It is a big part of TV now and they should seek to cash in from it, because it's where a lot of the money is.
In conjunction with the selling of ITV Studios and the rebuild of ITV Online, fixing ITV1 will become the next priority. This one is trickier but the axing of low-performing shows, irrespective of value, will probably be first, following in the ilk of The South Bank Show's sad demise.
Interesting times indeed...