Originally Posted by mlt11:
“Yes, Q4 is comfortably ITV's most important quarter.
But to say it would lose 80% of its advertising revenue away from Q4 is a massive overstatement.
Not saying they would move X Factor to another quarter - obviously they want it in the most important quarter - but it's worth keeping the actual numbers in perspective.”
Well, obviously I was exaggerating a bit because I like to be a bit whimsical in this thread. But The X Factor (or The Voice, if it moved) would surely have to be in Q4, because the music industry is so massively geared around Christmas. All the bands who appear on it are their to plug their albums out for Christmas so most of those will have gone for a burton if they move it to Q1 because they won't have any product out. It's such an important showcase for the music industry that they would spit feathers if they ever moved it.
It's not so much a question of the advertising revenue of ITV as a whole but of The X Factor in particular, and not just of the adverts surrounding the programme but the promotional value of the programme itself. It simply wouldn't be viable as a Q1 show because it's become so ingrained in the music industry's promotional calendar.
Originally Posted by Fudd:
“All this is provisional of course. If it goes ahead I guess they're giving up with News at Ten ever competing with the BBC News ever again and are trying to get some value out of what they have left of the Champions League in particular.”
Hmm, this isn't that big a tragedy, we know News at Ten is never going to win so if there's a chance to do something that makes sense being there then fair enough. What pisses people off - or it pisses me off at least - is when they move it for a pre-recorded programme that could be at any time at any night, because it just looks stupid (especially when they then don't move it for things like the NTAs which would justify it). Fair enough they move it something big enough to justify the slot.
If you were to look back at the seventies and eighties, occasionally ITV would show football highlights at 10pm and move the news, if they couldn't show it before 10pm and they wanted it on as soon as possible.
Originally Posted by Dr. Linus:
“I'm very surprised Caroline is allowed to do it. Similarly I've always been surprised that Nick Grimshaw, highly placed in the BBC, is allowed to do X Factor and keep his Radio 1 job. I know Dermot also had a show on Radio 2 but he was not such a "Bbc" face and the rivalry was not as fierce in the days of Dermot's appointment.”
It's no different to when Chris Evans was doing TFI Friday, which he used to promote incessantly on the show, and I think TFI was considered a serious rival to things like Top of the Pops (indeed, Evans used to slag it off) and Jools Holland and so on. But the Beeb let it lie because the promotion worked both ways.
Originally Posted by Salv*:
“Expected though. Is that with +1? The ratings should be back up tonight. As we can see Bank Holiday weekend kills any show that has a remotely large young demo.”
Originally Posted by D.M.N.:
“The X Factor hasn't had tough competition. Casualty shouldn't be classed as tough competition. However, it seemingly now is competition. You can't use the "oh, but the youngsters were out last night" excuse when you're struggling that badly, that's not an acceptable excuse in my opinion.”
I dunno about this Bank Holiday thing anyway, I don't see that there were vast numbers of people jetting off this weekend. Especially if you're aiming at young audiences, they're not the people who work nine to five and then cram something into the Bank Holiday, a lot of them are still at school and college so would have been off all summer anyway, or be working shifts, and the Bank Holiday weekend is no different to any of the previous half dozen weekends or so.
Originally Posted by Servalan:
“The problem that has been staring ITV in the face for a long time now, and which they have repeatedly failed to address, is that no entertainment format lasts indefinitely, and the writing has been on the wall for TXF for a while now. The bits of this year's shows that I've seen look even more staged than ever - and the audience can see the cracks getting wider.”
I think it's a shame that the big problem with The X Factor seems to be that it's massively staged and cynical because as I've said here before one of the things that made Popstars and Pop Idol such a hit was that they were "warts and all" portrayals of the music industry and they seemed to have a honesty about them which was refreshing at the time. The one I always mention is when Rik Waller was given a bye of Pop Idol (though in the end he pulled out completely) and they actually discussed that on air and talked about why they'd done it, and got the studio audience to give their comments, and it made for fascinating viewing because normally a show like that would just sweep it under the carpet. So it felt like it was a show that was on the viewers' side, and it's sad to see its successor show now being considered as encompassing the worst facets of taking the audience for granted.
Also as well the thing about Popstars and Pop Idol is that both only ran for two series, whereas we've now had X Factor for twelve. Of course there was a plan to do a third series of Popstars, finding duos, but that abandoned that when they decided they only wanted to do X Factor, seemingly because they always wanted Cowell on these shows, and he would only do X Factor. When you had Popstars and Pop Idol they were very similar shows but because they had slightly different formats it meant it seemed a bit fresher. I wonder what would have happened if after series one of The X Factor you had that third series of Popstars, and then you would alternate the various formats, so you'd have a very similar show but enough variation to keep it fresh every year. As opposed to just The X Factor over and over again.
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