More cuts expected at ITV

More cut-backs are expected at ITV as the broadcaster attempts to cut costs amid the worsening economic climate. More redundancies and programme cut-backs are likely to be the order of the day for the commercial broadcaster.

The declining economic climate is hitting everyone hard but the decline in advertising revenue will hit commercial broadcasters the hardest and the longer the downturn continues the bigger the impact. ITV has already axed programmes in order to save money, Wire in the Blood for instance, and has also cut-back its work force. The restructuring of the regional news bulletins is also, in part, to save the broadcaster money but more redundancies and programme cutbacks are expected at ITV.

Media Guardian reports that up to 500 staff could be made redundant; this is on top of the 1000 at ITV who have already been made redundant. The staff redundancies are expected to be announced in March. ITV are also expected to cut annual spending, which is currently at £1b, in order to save money. This would, however, go against Michael Grade’s pledge to maintain that figure and was part of his recovery plan for ITV. As well as staff cutbacks it’s likely that programming on ITV will also suffer from cost cutting and there may be more repeats in prime-time slots.

ITV’s drive to cut costs in recent weeks has seen The Royal and Heartbeat both effectively cancelled, for the time being, The Bill reduced to just one episode a week [and in a new slot] and Wire in the Blood dropped by the channel. However, this week it was announced that the broadcaster was reviving drama series Foyle’s War which had been shockingly axed by Simon Shaps – who has since departed the broadcaster. ITV’s flagship soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street may not even be safe from cutbacks as reports suggest bosses are considering cutting the number of episodes of both soaps per week.