ITV boss promises more popular shows like Cold Feet in channel shake-up

ITV chief Michael Grade yesterday promised a "major face-lift" for the broadcaster claiming he will wield the axe on "tired old programmes" and show fewer repeats in a bid to revive the broadcaster.

The colourful ITV executive chairman promised more drama hits in peak-time with more shows like Cold Feet, one of the broadcaster's most successful hits of the nineties.

His comments contrast with the BBC's recent claim that it will make less content and increase the number of repeats it screen after it did not get the licence fee settlement it wanted.

Mr Grade, who defected from the BBC where he was chairman to ITV at the end of last year, promised lots of new shows.

He said: "The channel has to be fresher, better and higher quality.

"I want to see fewer 90 minute single dramas and more high quality drama series that run for 13 weeks at least.

He added: "We have fallen way behind, we lost our edge with the 9pm slot during the week, although we are doing very well at the weekend."

Mr Grade also claimed there would be no more "poor copies" of other people's programmes.

Shows such as Tycoon, which was seen as a pale imitation of the BBC's The Apprentice and was a ratings disaster.

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Encouraging figures released yesterday showed that ITV1's inexorable decline in viewers has slowed down, as people switch to digital TV, which offers lots more channels.

But ITV is planning to take the axe to its regional news service cutting up to £40million from its budget and slashing the number of local bulletins from 17 to nine.

Hundreds of job are set to be axed as result of this according to unions.

Mr Grade also allayed fears that old shows like Emmerdale and Coronation Street could be culled claiming they were the "jewels in the crown" of ITV.

ITV's flagship ITV1 station has been haemorrhaging viewers over the past four years, mainly because of the run-away success of the Freeview digital TV service.

A perceived failure to produce enough 'must-see' programmes in recent years has turned viewers away from ITV1 - a problem Mr Grade was poached from the BBC to address.

Grade wants ITV2 to replace Channel 5 as the UK's third most popular channel for 16-34 year olds

But despite Mr Grade's ambitious plans ITV actually announced a smaller-than-expected increase in its programming budget for its main channel.

While Grade announced an extra £20m would be spent on original programmes for its ITV2 channel next year, investment in ITV1 would be the same as in 2007.