that audience, for example, is used to watching from 7pm until 7:30pm so no shift in the emmerdale audience figures and similarly, coronation street, moving to an hour on friday, and what we found now is that when traditionally with to episodes split with something the middle, that the second episode would always lose some viewers from the first because there was a temptation to go find something else or something else he wanted to watch, whereas you put it for a one hour and i was sick for the hour. again, it has worked effectively for us. that, i m happy to say, was a good decision. what is it like in the itv office, if you take a decision like that, getting in in the morning, waiting for the evening before s viewing figures? is it nerve wracking, do you feel like yourjob
that really had an impact on everybody who works on television, and those that watch it. so, love island is a narrower version of that, a more obviously. it s a dating show that happens to be stripped in this way. and when you look at it, you were at channel 4 when big brother was commissioned, so you know that programme intimately, you were also there when ali g was commissioned, men behaving badly and others. do you think there are some types of programmes, some formats you commissioned years ago that nowadays would be harder to commission? is it harder to commission edgier or difficult programming? it shouldn t be, because there are more outlets for everything. but it is always hard, and i think you want the confidence, as a broadcaster, or as a channel or whatever, to think we can try these things, and if it fails, it doesn t matter, because we try something else next week. so i don t think it is less risky, certainly not at itv.
suggesting it should? well, they could give us some of the licence fee. would you like that? oh, i don t know. it is very difficult to please everyone all the time. but i m interested, that was a throwaway remark, but it seems to me it was not entirely injest, because i m sure you know the culture secretary this week said that the licence fee is not a long term, sustainable model, so is itv interested in a different type of licence fee, which is notjust given to the bbc? honestly, that is a job for the bbc to worry about. what is without doubt is that the bbc is incredibly important, vital to the broadcasting ecology, and a strong bbc is good for the country, and good for other broadcasters. you know, healthy competition between us is a good thing, and i want the bbc to thrive, just as itv does. you want it to thrive, but do you think it can and it should thrive with its current funding model?
it is great that we keep it. because by being on idv, you have a good chance because by being on itv, you have a good chance of it being successful. given those multiple considerations, what is an average day and an average week look like? how was your time divided up between these responsibilities? it is a bit of a doctor s surgery, truth be known. i have meeting after meeting after meeting, where people are either pitching shows or internal meetings with editors, heads of department, and remember it is from news to entertainment, to drama. you have time to watch tv, given you have so many meetings about it? yes, i always managed to watch a great deal of television so i do watch. in the evening or do you block out time in the day and say it is tv time? mainly in the evening. my poor long suffering wife will attest to this,
i did a few years. so the techniques of storytelling, of making programmes, are much the same. you know, they move on a bit. but that is a constant, i would say. i think the. i still love the range of output that a mainstream broadcaster can do, from high to low culture, from silly game shows to serious dramas or whatever, and that hasn t changed. so the real change in the landscape is there is so much choice now. when i went to television, there were four channels, and you had a trapped audience, and so people were more forgiving and less critical than perhaps now. if you just think of the way you watch yourself of an evening, you give something a couple of minutes, and if you don t like it, you put something else on. everything ever made is available to watch tonight, as well as loads of new shows dropped every week, mainly from america, but also from the bbc and itv. so the choice is extraordinary, and this certainly is sharpening the wits of producers and writers and creators to me