actually i thought most of us thought that is a fascinating idea! does he really want to go in? so, we decided after some debate but not enormous soul searching, yeah, we think he would be a great addition to the programme. with someone like matt hancock, or indeed any other contestant, when they say they want to take part do they sometimes bring conditions and say they will take part but i don t want to do this challenge, i don t want to be involved in this situation? no. you have to go in in full metaljacket! no, we cannot allow people not to do things. do you think he may be interested in his own show? is interested in a career beyond politics? he might. the bbc? we will see. at itv, you are a broadcaster and a producer, selling programmes around the world. i m interesting to know
decision, to extended the news to 1.5 hours and coronation street moved to episodes monday and friday, emmerdale up against east enders, big decisions for you and itv to take. how do you take them? are you doing that on guts or after months and months of data analysis? the data analysis follows the gut decision. does it? i thought there was a lot of programming in between episodes that was good, some of it good, some of it not as good, but it tended to disappear after a while. the budgets were getting squeezed and ijust thought i think it would be cleaner if the news ran longer and the big decision in some ways was can people take that much news, can we move emmerdale after its successful place of seven o clock to 7:30pm and research and data tells you that 80% of the people who watch emmerdale watch coronation street.
what we can do is offer a greater range than we have done in programming. there is enormous pressure on commercial stations to get 5 million viewers every night at nine o clock sort of thing and certain genres and types of programming, that is a real stretch for them. comedy is an example. sitcoms in the last period of time, a decade almost, with notable exceptions, struggle to get people and audiences now. itv has not been making comedy but with itvx, you can let things grow and develop and we are commercially interested in maybe smaller audiences that are, that are people who don t watch things on itv that would be looking for comedy and how we can make comedies and hopefully attract an audience that perhaps would not first off go to itv. i m reading a quote on itvx saying it will tackle subjects
how your role straddles those purposes for itv. when ijoined itv for about five years or more i ran the studios, the production side of the business, and we identified that it needed bolstering and it needed to grow and making own programmes was a good thing to do so we have spent many years investing in it, growing it, to now it is may be the biggest producer in europe sort of thing. it is a very important side and i don t manage that but obviously now commissioning, i don t know, over half of the programmes we have at itv on all the channels are made by our studios. although there is no quota or something, i think there is an understanding in the business that the perfect, the perfect show is one that is made by studios, that you own, that you control and if it has any potential outside of the uk,
this is bbc news. we ll have the headlines and all the other main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. hello and welcome. my guest this week is kevin lygo, the managing director for itv of media and entertainment, and, as such, he is responsible for all of the programming for itv on its network, and on its new streaming servers, itvx. he began his media career working on the two ronnies as a trainee at the bbc, and also a dealer of islamic art in paris for a while, and this year, he released a book, called the emperors of byzantium . kevin lygo, welcome to the media show. you are a busy man! yes. we will talk about itvx and the culture secretary