Speaking at a Westminster Media Forum seminar last week, Carolyn Fairbairn, director of group development and strategy at ITV, said the broadcaster was "not asking for public money, but for creative freedom" to make public service content.
She said commercially funded public service broadcasting was at a "crossroads", with the digital switchover underway and set for completion by 2012. "Looking at digital switch-over as happening in 2012 is just not right," she added. "A new settlement for PSBs is urgently needed."
Last month, as part of an update into its ongoing review of PSB provision, three of Ofcom's four main proposals stated that ITV1 would no longer face PSB obligations. Ofcom estimates that ITV1's PSB spend totals £140m per year at present, which it forecasts will fall to £45m in 2012. ITV is currently planning to reduce its regional news costs by £40m, as it provides "virtually no revenue" for the broadcaster.
Fairbairn admitted that the idea of becoming a purely commercial broadcaster was "quite attractive" to ITV. She said that news content would "not suddenly disappear" from its schedule, but that commercial imperatives would direct its programming decisions in the future.
In contrast, Five said it wanted to continue to invest in PSB programming and valued competition between PSBs and non-PSB commercial broadcasters.
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