Archie Norman: 'ITV not ready for pay-TV'


Thursday, March 4 2010,

By Andrew Laughlin,


ITV chairman Archie Norman has said that the broadcaster is not ready for a move to pay-TV services, but such a strategy is definitely under consideration.

Former Asda boss Norman confirmed yesterday that incoming chief executive Adam Crozier will run a strategic review of the firm when he starts on April 26.

Despite Norman previously dismissing talk of a pay-TV move, the chairman has now admitted that it could be a "good idea in the future".

However, he said that the problem for ITV is that it currently has "no suitable product for a pay platform" and so must further develop that side of the business.

"Pay wall, pay-TV, subscriptions...would it be a good idea in the future for some of our income to come from there? It may be - it is a more stable platform [for revenues]," he told The Guardian.

"[But] we have no product suitable for a pay platform right now. Speculation we might take ITV2, 3 or 4 onto a pay-TV platform is not realistic.

"Were we to develop a proposition in the pay [TV] market we would need a very different product than we have at this time. Is there in principle a case for looking at it [a pay-TV channel] out of content and programming we have? Absolutely."

Norman said that it is now "day zero" for ITV and he wants the new-look management team to "build a four-to-five year future" for the broadcaster.

Yesterday, ITV revealed that it made a pre-tax profit of £25m in 2009, after racking up losses of around £2.7 billion the previous year