Switching channels

‘Have you had an accident at work that’s led to a loss of income?’ ‘Would you like to consolidate your debt?’ ‘Do you want to release equity from your property?’ If you’ve ever had the misfortune to find yourself watching ITV1 during the daytime (according to the British Market Research Bureau, not a single Spectator reader admits to doing so, so take my word for this), you’ll recognise those questions from the relentlessly downmarket ads that the channel now carries.

But — in an irony apparent to industry watchers, if not to daytime couch potatoes — those same questions can just as easily be asked of the company itself. That’s because, in the first half of this year, a series of accidents in ITV’s scheduling (how else would you describe a second series of Celebrity Love Island?) led to an 8 per cent fall in advertising income. In the same period, ITV’s net debt increased by 45 per cent to £647 million, and £108 million worth of its ‘non-core’ assets were sold off.