ITV New Chairman Hints They May Enter The Pay To View Market
The boss of UK tv network ITV has intimated that they may start charging for tv shows. In the US, the idea of having to pay for previously free content from Hulu has gone down like a lead balloon. But in the UK it would be a much bigger shock for a tv network that has been free since its inception, looking at pay per view.
ITV new chairman Archie Norman, shaking things up
ITV’s new chairman Archie Norman has previously said that a move to pay-TV services was not on the cards. However speaking to the Guardian, he reveled they are ‘looking into’ plans for a potential pay-TV channel launch, however this is “not a change of tune” but that ITV currently “had no suitable product for a pay platform”.
The new boss claims that hit shows such as the X Factor with Simon Cowell are still safe from subscriptions. The comments came as he revealed ITV turned “life threatening” losses of £2.7billion in 2008 into a profit of £25million in 2009. That was at the expense of 1,200 jobs axed, Norman said more people watched ITV last year than in 2008.
“ITV’s challenge is to reduce its dependence on free-to-air model threatened by digital media and strangled by regulation.” As well as pay TV the firm must make more of its own programmes so they could sell them worldwide, he said. He also said that it needs to smarten up its online tv operation (which has seen impressive growth) to become market leading rather than market lagging as more people tune into tv on the internet.
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Christ – Where do these execs get off. The Country is in ruins and all they can think about is shafting the poor viewer. We put up with all your crap ads so do us the honour of not charging or i’ll sling my telly out the window.
[...] The boss of UK tv network ITV has intimated that they may start charging for tv shows. In the US, the idea of having to pay for previously free content from Hulu has gone down like a lead balloon. But in the UK it would be a much bigger shock for a tv network that has been free since its inception, looking at pay per view. View the Original article [...]