UK TELEVISION does not generally need much of an excuse to talk about itself. But every two years a double dose of introspection is guaranteed when the Edinburgh TV Festival is followed by the Royal Television Society symposium in Cambridge, which is being held this weekend.

With all the media top brass at Cambridge, some might be forgiven for having other things on their minds. For BBC management it is the Hutton inquiry and Charter renewal. New programming bosses at both Channel 4 and Five have schedules to recast. And Sky executives will be mulling over management succession in the bar.

For ITV, the big question is the much-anticipated decision from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on the proposed merger between Carlton and Granada. The merger would create a single company controlling the UK’s leading commercial channel. Resolving the ownership issue does not represent the endgame, but rather the start of a new phase in the development of ITV. At a stroke, ITV would shed the shackles of its federal past and be able to grasp the huge opportunity that I believe the removal of the ownership issue would offer.

Yes, we will save money — that is good news for viewers, as it should help us to sustain a programme budget larger than that of any other commercial channel in Europe. But cost savings, although important, are just a very small part of what the future of ITV is about.

Of much greater significance is the difference it will mean in the way the channel is run. For too long, sales, broadcasting and production in ITV have pulled in different directions with different commercial objectives. That’s already changing as we have introduced a common focus on ITV’s share of commercial TV audiences — “commercial impacts” — and a much more scientific approach to creating a schedule that maximises that share. This has already delivered ITV’s best year-on-year performance to date in ten years.

The merger will allow this common commercial currency to be firmly established right through to the very DNA of the business, with everyone incentivised to grow our share of commercial impacts. For the first time, everyone in ITV will be aligned with the interests of the customers who pay our wages — the advertisers — and against ITV’s external competitors.

Regional programming is another huge opportunity. There is a school of thought that consolidation into a national network will marginalise the regions within ITV. I could not agree less. In the past, the threat to regional services actually came from 15 regional services each pulling in a different direction. In all the main ITV regions, regional programme hours account for more of the schedule than Coronation Street, Emmerdale and The Bill combined. A single

ITV will be absolutely focused on getting the most out of every minute of its schedule — and that very much includes regional programming.

News is key to ITV’s regional service and represents an even greater opportunity. ITV invests more than twice as much per annum in regional, national and international news as Sky. But that investment is currently split across ITN and the regional ITV companies, putting us at a disadvantage against unified news operations like the BBC’s or Sky’s. Creating a totally focused news offer will be one of ITV’s top priorities. And anyone with concerns about ITV’s commitment to news should look to our recent coverage of the Iraq crisis on ITV1 and the ITV News Channel.

The ITV News Channel is a key part of ITV’s digital strategy, which is another area that will benefit significantly from a merger. Under unified ownership, there is a greater opportunity for effective cross- promotion and joint scheduling strategies. When viewers are turning over from ITV1, we can ensure that more of them are turning to ITV2 or the ITV News Channel. Already ITV2 has shown the way, catapulting itself into the top ten channels in recent months.

These are some of the practical differences that an ITV merger will make. But the big change will be a cultural one. A Byzantine structure enforced by legislation has ensured an obsession with internal politics, ownership structures and jockeying for position within the network. An ITV merger will allow viewers and advertisers an overdue return to centre stage.

Of course, people watch programmes, not companies. No one is going to sit in front of their television thinking: “Well, now they’ve got the ownership sorted, let’s see what’s on ITV1.” But with the ownership issue resolved, ITV will live or die by the strength of its programmes. Even if the merger does not go through, we have clearly crossed the Rubicon and there can be no turning back on the benefits being achieved through close collaboration between Carlton and Granada. And if the Government requires divestment of both sales houses, we will have to look very carefully to see if we can make that work.

As ever, the devil will be in the detail, but we believe that double divestment significantly undermines the rationale of the deal. But whatever colour light the DTI gives the merger — red, amber or green — the future for us will be to build ITV. If the merger does go through and with a new “lighter-touch” regulator, our success or failure will be ours alone. Depending on how you look at it, that’s either terrifying or liberating. To me, it is a hugely liberating prospect and I am confident that it will be very good for ITV, its viewers and its advertisers.

Charles Allen is chairman of Granada Television

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