Morning:
8°c
BONG! ITV's News at Ten returns to an under --whelming reception, attracting a mere 3.8 million viewers on its Monday debut.
BONG! ITV's share price keeps heading south, hitting a new low last week and ending only 3p above it yesterday at 70p.
BONG! The latest advertising forecasts for this year are gloomy, posing a real threat to ITV's revenue.
Who would be Michael Grade, the man who joined as chairman in November 2006 to the sound of cheers from both programme-makers and the City? There has been precious little applause in the last few months, though, because ITV appears to be in worse shape than when he took over, and his chances of turning the situation around now look slim.
That is not to say it is all Grade's fault. Indeed, it would be very unfair to blame him for most of the problems currently facing the broadcaster. But he has to deal with them nevertheless. For example, the weakness in the global economy is one of the major causes of an anticipated downturn in advertising. According to the latest Bellwether report, produced for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, companies are planning cuts in marketing budgets.
The depressing economic environment is a problem for Grade because he was always going to need time and space, and City goodwill, in order to revitalise ITV. But, despite the clarity of his plans and some positive signs that they might well work, investors have become more and more nervous.
He inherited a company in dire straits, after all. There is evidence that he has improved the management. The hiring of Dawn Airey as managing director of ITV's global content division was certainly a great plus, and he has clearly brought out the best in his director of television, Simon Shaps.
Grade has also overseen what promises to be a transformation in programming and - following the return of News at Ten - innovative scheduling, just as was expected from him. But BBC1 remains pre-eminent, as its success at Christmas showed.
Then there are two unrelated difficulties that haunt Grade as he struggles to convince sceptical City analysts that the future is bright - the acute problem of BSkyB's 17.9% stake and the continuing drama over phone-in scandals.
Though the Competition Commission has recommended that the satellite broadcaster should be forced to reduce its holding to less than 7.5%, the Government will not announce its final ruling until 29 January. Meanwhile, the Commission appears to have had some sympathy with BSkyB's plea that it cannot find a buyer, what with the price having fallen and there being no sign of its having bottomed out.
So the Commission has now agreed to give BSkyB more time to appeal against the Government's decision should it go against it. That does not ease the pain for Grade, ensuring that the saga drags on interminably.
As for the phone-in affair, that depends on a report by the regulator, Ofcom, which it appears in no particular hurry to deliver.
Ofcom has called for the full details of an inquiry by the auditors Deloitte into the seven ITV programmes that are said to have swindled £7.8 million from viewers who made phone calls in contests they could not possibly have won.
Grade, who made much of calling the BBC to account for its similar problems over phone-in scandals, did not emerge too well when he refused to discipline ITV's own miscreants. It was one of those rare occasions when Grade, a consummate handler of the media, floundered during interviews.
As if all that isn't enough, he must do something about the social networking site Friends Reunited, acquired by ITV for £120 million in 2005. It has been revamped, but it offers no competition of any consequence to much zippier rivals like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. A strategic overhaul is evidently planned, ending subscriptions and making it advertiser-funded, but the enterprise gets in the way of the core business.
It's a distraction from the work that needs to be done to put ITV back on track.
I wonder if Grade now regrets having turned his back on the chairmanship of the BBC governors in order to seek his fortune at ITV. Not that there is much of a fortune to be had right now.
He must have been confident because he has options that don't kick until the share price reaches 135p. That looks a mighty long way away now.
