ITV must own youth shows, says Pickard

Published Wednesday 5 October 2005 at 11:05 by Liz Thomas

Exclusive: ITV director of programmes Nigel Pickard has said the broadcaster will need to invest more in the ownership and production rights of programmes in order to save children’s shows, which are being threatened by a lack of money because of falling advertising revenues.

The industry has been hit hard by the increase in the number of channels - there are now 22 children’s stations available - and by stricter regulations forcing advertisers out of the market. Earlier this year food giant Kraft announced it would no longer advertise during programmes for young people. This has all had a knock-on effect on investment and, in turn, the type of shows that are broadcast. There has been a proliferation of imported acquisitions, which critics argue is not acceptable as children need programmes that reflect their own lives.

Pickard said: “What we would like to be able to do - with the producer’s consent - is get to a point where we have some ownership in the programme. So that if it does sell worldwide, we can benefit from sales of merchandise - books, toys and programming rights… We want to take a greater investment position to ensure there are original productions, to build franchises in shows with producers that will provide revenue further down the line. It is still at a very early stage but we are looking at a different kind of broadcasting arrangement.”

He added that the network was in discussion with producers trade association Pact about ways it could jointly exploit opportunites with programme-makers and explained that ITV could help production houses at an early stage when funds are needed, while allowing the broadcaster to recoup cash to reinvest if the programme and products attached to it are successful.

The move was tacitly supported by Five’s director of sales Mark White, who agreed that alternatives needed to be found to tackle the fall in advertising revenue, which has dropped from £96 million in 2004 to around £80 million and is expected to fall a further £20 million in the next few years.

White said making children’s programmes often left producers with a deficit and was less valuable than other demographics for broadcasters. He pointed to parent company RTL, which has an in-house production department for children’s television in native Germany, allowing it to benefit from all international sales and merchandising rights.

White also warned that if regulations became increasingly strict, worsening the advertising downturn, then it would be hard for Five to commercially justify keeping children’s programmes in the schedule in the long term.

• Nigel Pickard will make his decision on whether he will stay at the network this week. He told The Stage he had been in talks with ITV about his role in the new structure following the recent overhaul, which saw ITV broadcasting chief executive Mick Desmond ousted and Simon Shaps moved across from Granada to become director of programmes. Pickard was positive about his future at the broadcaster but said he would give his final answer by Friday 7th October.