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ITV Have Reported A 28% Drop In Profit Over Last Years Figures

After hearing first thing this morning that ITV have filed a profit slump of 28% following a drop in advertising revenue the first thing that came to mind was all the shit they show. No doubt business analysts are (probably correctly) touting the drop in advertising revenue as a direct result of our good friend “the Credit Crunch” (anyone else sick of that word yet?) but it would be lousey of said people to not detail the lack of quality programming.

Maybe I don’t “get it” but I speak for the whole range of terrestrial British television channels when I say that none of them show anything that particularly interests me at all. To prove a point I looked in my Radio Times to find out exactly what is on ITV tonight after 5PM.

• 5PM: Golden Balls - Jasper Carrott hosts the show in which four contestants enter a game of truth and bluff to find life-changing amounts of cash hidden inside a set of golden balls before making the final choice of whether to share the jackpot or try to keep it for themselves.
  VERDICT: REPETITIVE SHIT.
• 6PM: National and local news.
  VERDICT: NOT AS GOOD AS BBC NEWS.
• 7PM: Emmerdale.
  VERDICT: SHIT.
• 7:30: Coronation Street - Jerry finds a flat for Teresa, but her reluctance to move drives her to take drastic action. A rejected Bill resolves to get Audrey back and Darryl warns David he might have gone too far in his perfect boyfriend campaign. Dev begins to feel like a pawn in Prem and Nina’s marital games.
  VERDICT: SHIT.
• 8PM: The Bill.
  VERDICT: SHIT.
• 9PM: Trinny & Susannah Undress The Nation - the duo teach women to love their bums.
  VERDICT: WTF?!
• 10PM: News At Ten.
  VERDICT: BBC NEWS IS BETTER.

So there you have it - right there is the reason why ITV profits rightly should be faller and so should all the other TV channels. To make this a fairer article I would like to point out that Channel 4 is showing Big Brother and Location, Location Location; Channel 5 has Britains Strongest Man and Vets In Action; ITV2 has “Lose 30 Stone Or Die” (yes, really); and BBC has the National Lottery, Crimewatch and fucking Des Lynam.

I’m fully aware that each of these shows have their own niche with programmes like the soaps, X Factor type contestant shows and Big Brother pulling in millions of people regularly but I’m going to look honestly at the TV guide and see if there is ANYTHING I would actually watch.

I’m sure I could force myself to watch the soaps and Des Lynam’s Sports Mastermind. Aside from that I’d probably watch Crimewatch if I was forced to. I could live without watching any of them. In fact in recent years the only real “prime-time” TV show I’ve watched has been Pushing Daisies.

I know I’m just an individual voice and there are plenty of other people enjoying what these terrestrial TV stations are putting out, but I’m sure I’m not alone when I say nothing really appeals to me. If profits are dropping it’s because quality has dropped.