November 28, 2006 | posted by Michael Baxter in IABN |

As we move into the digital age, the UK’s favourite Auntie was beginning to look a little doddery. Still smarting over the Hutton report and the Greg Dyke affair, after a BBC’s correspondent so outrageously suggested government documentation on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq were ’sexed up,’ one wondered whether the BBC had much of a future at all. As the digital age descends upon us, TV based media is set to, as HG Wells might have put it, ’swarm and multiply’. Was there a need for the BBC in this environment? But the chairman appointed in 2004, Michael Grade, seemed to come to the rescue. And today, the Auntie seems flushed with youth.

What a different story at the BEEB’s sorry rival. ITV is suffering at the hands of falling advertising revenue, growing competition from other broadcasters and growing competition for the TV medium as a whole, with a range of programming that sometimes seems lost in space, between ITV execs’ ears.
And so Michael Grade is set to join ITV, following in the footsteps of his father, who launched ITN back in the 50s.

Where that leads Sir Richard Branson and NTL is anyone’s guess. It’s no surprise ITV turned down the bid, with a card like that to be revealed, they would probably have turned down any bid.

In this era, however, as we have said before, content is king. And ultimately, ITV needs better content. Grade’s famous father was behind the TV series’ ‘The Persuaders’, ‘Danger Man’ and ‘The Saint’, and right now Mr Grade junior’s halo brings back memories of the character played so famously by Roger Moore.

With the Murdoch’s via BSkyB holding 20 percent, with Branson’s ambitions in the TV arena apparently unquenched, with BT launching their TV service soon, with the likes of Google moving into TV content, so that ITV, BBC and BSKyB can no longer say of the TV domain, “That’s my space,” ITV’s challenges have become incredibly complex.

The Grade appointment is a real coup, and hats off to ITV for pulling it off. But even Mr Grade faces a massive task. He may well pull it off, but we suspect ITV may need at least one more major merger before it can say it’s back.