Scrap the 25% independent producers quota for ITV - one of Michael Grade's suggestions for the future. Here's another - ITV news in the nations and regions might be provided in the longer term by a publicly funded third party, Grade told the RTS yesterday.
Is he throwing his toys out of the pram or the baby with the bathwater? I can't see ITV1 is overflowing with exciting new ideas from indies - they seem to turn up on the BBC more often, particularly when it comes to drama. Tearing up a statutory quota doesn't sound like a good way of building relations with indies.
As for dropping the regional news into an unspecified 'public' home - clearly ITV sees its regional commitment as 'toxic' in the way that banks have toxic finance clogging up their books. What was once thought to be it's USP, is now looked on as a UBX.
ITV usually gets its way from the regulator so the chances are that these ideas - and others - will come about. But don't be suprised if it's under a different ownership.
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