Originally Posted by H of De Vil:
“I would also get the rights to more films, Disney films, Dreamworks etc. Put some real effort into making the channel a comedy, family, entertainment channel.”
That's potentially a very expensive strategy though and its clear at this point that ITV aren't willing to spend that kind of money on the channel nor is it clear they should. Additionally I'm not sure this is a particularly distinctive identity for the channel and it doesn't seem like one they're going to be able to achieve any better than any other number of channels existing in similar although admittedly not combined into one uneasy mess.
Originally Posted by Jonwo:
“I can't see 5 dropping drama anytime soon but its apparent their current slate isn't working, I would stick with Wentworth for a while and I agree that the broadening of the drama hasn't especially with the non US dramas. Gotham should premiere well but whether it can stick remains to be seen. They do have their work cut out as CSI is aging and The Mentalist is ending next year so there is going to gaps that need to be filled. If I were them, I would consider commissioning another original drama to along with Suspects with the aim of having more than one returnable series.
The airing of Neighbours and Home and Away on Viva makes me wonder whether Viacom are considering merging Viva and 5*, to me, it would be good as 5* has struggled with competing with the likes of ITV2 and E4 and merging them and creating a new channel would help be competitive although I would move certain shows like The Walking Dead to 5USA.”
Viva 5? Its potentially quite a good idea really since both channels have struggled somewhat to define themselves and gain traction in an increasingly crowded market. Although Viva is a channel that has never really made any kind of sense to me at all.
On the subject of drama on Channel 5 its a difficult road for them to walk at this point. On the one hand I'd say they should in essence double down on their strategy of broadening their slate of imports not just in terms of where they're buying them from but the genre of them as well but on the other hand its not a strategy that's found much success to date so its easy to make the case for doing a full reversal and getting more aggressive with US procedurals going forward. Its going to be interesting to see which road they opt to take although I suppose the more likely option is to chart some kind of middle ground between the two. I'd agree that adding another new original drama to their slate isn't a bad call either. And actually with Viacom behind them now I wonder if we might see an increase in home grown drama that can be sold be sold into the international market. Maybe now is the time to pull the trigger on CSI: London (or UK)?
Originally Posted by Dancc:
“So ITV's overall share is going to benefit even if ITV2 backpedals slightly. And if BBC Three does leave Freeview this time next year, then obviously that represents a huge opportunity to grow ITV2 and ITV Be. So any declines experienced in the next 12 months with ITV2 could easily be reversed the following year, and therefore it might be useful to experiment as much as possible in that time to see what works and what doesn't. So ideally by autumn 2015 when there's potentially going to be more floating viewers available, every viewer will have a better understanding of who ITV2 is for and who ITV Be is for.”
I think its perfectly fair to say that ITV2 (and ITV Be for that matter) will need time to establish or re-establish itself but my problem is I don't think its particularly clear what ITV2 is establishing itself as or how it intends to achieve that. ITV Be appears to have a very clear mission statement and a strong strategy in place to achieve that ITV2 not so much. It just gives the impression that they're fumbling around in the dark a bit and makes me believe that E4 is much more likely to capitalise on the planned departure of BBC3.
Quote:
“I'm more concerned with the inevitable failure of the hugely disappointing ITV Encore which has been such a missed opportunity by the broadcaster. A real half hearted attempt at a pay channel and it shows when it's rating worse than channels such as Animal Planet, Discovery +1 , Lifetime, Nicktoons, TCM and Watch+1, to name a few. It's still early days of course and no doubt ITV will point out that it wasn't a channel conceived purely with ratings in mind, but it's got a lot of work to do to even get on terms with Sky Atlantic.”
ITV Encore was always going to be a difficult beast for them to launch without original content. Its just upmarket ITV3 at this point. I still like the basic concept of the channel its just become very clear they weren't really ready to launch it.
for the repeated shows.
