ITV faces "Clause IV moment"

Speaking at the Royal Television Society last night, ITV director of television Simon Shaps admitted the broadcaster had neglected its main channel, reports Owen Gibson for Media Guardian (free registration required).

ITV's £300m spending on drama needed to be channelled into the best writers and be "more contemporary and less predictable". Mr Shaps said the drama reinvention would be accompanied by a "painful but necessary process" by which popular programmes including Celebrity Fit Club, Footballers Wives and Rosemary and Thyme would be dropped. It was, he said, "a kind of clause IV moment for ITV", referring to Tony Blair's reinvention of the Labour party.