Reasons for ITV to be cheerful.

Last week was a break-through week for ITV1 thanks to five consecutive nights of 9pm drama – Collision won its slot every night. Although there is something soap-ish about stripping a drama over five nights – indeed Coronation Street is up to the self-same tactic this week – the celebrations at ITV will have been about the impact achieved by a drama.

With an average of 6.5 million/27% share, the drama’s figures were robust for weeknights, although that only serves to highlight the sensational numbers being recorded by The X Factor – 11.9pm/45% on Saturday at 8pm, and a staggering 14.3m/47% share on Sunday night.

The appeal of Collision was such that it drew attention to weakening drama on other channels, such as Spooks, which returned for a new BBC1 9pm run with 4.5m/19% share on Monday night. The value of a strong piece of drama can also be highlighted by the opposite – a weak piece, or one which is draws poor reviews, such as Channel 4’s The Execution of Gary Glitter, which performed poorly on Monday night with 1.2m/5% share

With stellar weekend ratings, and a strong weeknight drama, does that mean ITV1 is out of the woods? The uplift in ratings from X Factor is being spun alongside stories about the value of the airtime in the show, and a potential improvement in the advertising market. All of which is going on while ITV1 continues to look for a new chairman.

There is also good news for ITV1 from competitors. Although Channel 4 is calling its programme cull an opportunity for creative renewal, the fact that it is dispensing with programmes which were once mainstays of its schedule, starting with Big Brother, and now extending to Wife Swap and How Clean is Your House, means that the channel will be searching for ratings from relatively unproven programmes. Perhaps it will hit ground running with new shows, but more likely there is going to be a period when it is trying out shows in primetime – surely an opportunity for ITV1.

It could also be argued that the BBC – licking its wounds from the face-off between The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing – may be obliged to compete with one hand tied behind its back. The relative weakness shown by Spooks suggests that a golden period of drama enjoyed by the BBC may be coming to an end – not a dramatic fall-off in numbers but either consolidation or gradual decline. And as the corporation is in the spotlight for what it pays talent – never mind its own executives – the chances are that it will be inclined to row back on more expensive or high profile projects which may risk adverse headlines.

Take all these elements into account and you can see why ITV would have been jubilant about what happened with Collision. Like the British economy, its not out of the woods yet, but there are signs that the commercial network’s fortunes are starting to swing upwards once more.