ITV boss Adam Crozier has laughed off the plans of Richard Desmond, as the Northern & Shell owner begins to stamp his authority on five. Desmond has made cheeky bids to poach Coronation Street and the X-Factor. When asked about this, Crozier said the following:
“Richard thanks for trying.” “There’s a very short answer to that and it’s a very large no.”
Crozier was responding on the day when ITV announced its recent figures, as they try and bounce back from testing times, due to the recession. ITV’s audience share stands at an average of 24.1%, compared to Five’s meagre audience share of 4.2%. Crozier, the former chief executive of the FA during Sven-Goran Eriksson’s dismal reign as England coach and the figurehead of crisis-hit Royal Mail took over in March this year, after the departure of Michael Grade. Grade labelled the recent recession as “the worst recession in living memory,” which saw slump in advertising revenues and cutback made in ITV’s regional news output. Crozier insists that ITV are making a very strong recovery and hints that the recently poaching of former BBC stars Adrian Chiles, Jonathan Ross anc Christine Bleakley signal changing times ahead. He also aims to oversee the launch of 3 new HD channels which will available exclusively to customers who subscribe to Virgin Media and BSkyB. The first of these should be available to consumers this October.
Desmond paid £103.5million to buy Five last month from the German company, RTL. Having made his money through adult television channels, plus his ownership in OK! Magazine and the Daily Express, Desmond has had to make significant and expected cuts at the channel, including the departure of seven senior members of staff, which was confirmed this afternoon. Nevertheless, he plans to expand on the possible potential of Australian soaps Neighbours and Home & Away, both struggling to compete with the major UK soap opera players. He has also signed exclusive deal with Warner Brothers to produce films for the channels, aims to improve on Five’s radical coverage of the UEFA Europa League and has plans to poach the highly controversial Panorama show and the doomed Big Brother, which is due to leave Channel 4 screens at the end of this month.
This move to poach some of ITV’s top shows was never ever going to be a reality, but it already shows Desmond’s commitment and desire to turn the fortunes of five around.
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