ITV to go subscription only?
Another month – another media service in trouble – this time, ITV.
In early March, we saw ITV’s pre-tax profits drop by 41% and plans to cut another 600 jobs, scale down regional operations, as well as sell off Friends Reunited.
According to a story in the Express, ITV’s only salvation may be a shift to a subscription model. This would see them vanish as a free-to-view channel, shifting to Sky and Virgin as a pay-to-view channel. The report claims that viewers would be prepared to pay £2.50 a month for ITV (compared to the £12 a month licence fee for the BBC).
Nothing’s decided yet, but it seems stations like ITV, Channel 4 and Five may have to start taking drastic steps to survive the slump.
I wouldn’t pay unless they take adverts out.
The answer is as Michael Grade proposed to merge ITV, Channel 4 and 5, save on infrastructure costs and have one free to air commercial company with about 12 channels.
The so called Golden Age of television was when there was only BBC and ITV