Grade uses Elastoplast when drastic surgery is required

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The digital age and a panoply of channels to choose from, a main competitor in the BBC that is subsidised by the state and is under no obligation to produce a profit, and a vicious downturn that has seen advertisers cut their budgets, have all collided to send ITV spinning. With today's shocking figures, chief Michael Grade is effectively throwing his hands in the air and saying: "I can't do any more, it's up to you to decide what you want your TV to look like."

He's writing off £2.7 billion of broadcasting and on-line assets. The value of the Carlton-Granada merger that created ITV plc was overdone. Likewise, the attempts by Charles Allen to diversify with purchases like Friends Reunited have not produced any magic.

Grade is cutting jobs and the programming budget of £1 billion will be trimmed. But he's using Elastoplast when drastic surgery is required.

ITV, as it is presently constituted, is doomed. As a free-to-air service it can't match the encroaching presence of premium, subscription Sky. And in the BBC, it faces an immovable obstacle.

ITV is not alone. Channels 4 and Five are in the same situation. This latest news from ITV makes the case for the joining of all three, already being signalled, ever stronger.

For this to happen, the Government must drop competition rules. Ministers decreed that High Street banks occupy a pivotal place in our society and they cannot be allowed to go under. Lloyds TSB was therefore allowed to combine with HBOS.

If we believe that television also occupies a vital position, then the same must occur with ITV, C4 and Channel Five. We need to say "enough" and reconstitute: ITV, its staff, investors and, ultimately, its viewers cannot take many more days such as this.