21 May 2004 | Gareth Jones

Allen To Clarify ITV Strategy At Crucial Board Meeting

ITV chief executive Charles Allen will present his future strategy for the broadcaster at a crucial board meeting next week as shareholders call for clarification of his plans for competing in the digital age.

The board meeting will be chaired by ITV chairman, Sir Peter Birt, who is understood to have been talking to the company’s directors, as well as institutional shareholders and broadcast experts about their views on the broadcaster’s future.

Allen is believed to be facing a new threat from city shareholders led by Anthony Bolton, the Fidelity fund manager, who vetoed the appointment of Carlton’s Michael Green as chairman of the newly merged ITV company last year (see Green Looks Set To Go As Granada Withholds Support).

A report in today’s Independent suggests that Bolton is calling on Sir Peter Birt to set out transparent growth targets against which Allen’s performance can be judged. Shareholders could then seek to remove the ITV chief executive if he failed to meet the criteria.

ITV is at a crucial point in its development and risks being marginalised by pay-television operator BSkyB and the Government-funded BBC in the increasingly competitive struggle for viewers in the multi-channel environment (see Freeview Pushes UK Multi-Channel Homes To 11.5 Million).

Allen has already outlined plans to extend ITV’s multi-channel strategy with the launch of ITV3 for older viewers and ITV Kids for the lucrative younger generation. However, he is perceived by some as a numbers man, rather than a strategic thinker on the future of television.

Institutional shareholders have already expressed concern over Allen’s apparent lack of strategy and his role in the collapse of ITV Digital, which cost the broadcaster hundreds of millions of pounds (see ITV Investors Could Remove Allen As Chief Executive).

ITV looks set to benefit from the general recovery in the advertising market. However, shareholders are understood to be concerned that the broadcaster will not manage real growth. Investors are said to want to see evidence that ITV is capable of increasing its market share and strengthening its digital presence.

There has been much speculation that former BBC director general, Greg Dyke, would be the favourite to take over from Allen, should he be ousted by shareholders. Dyke is a previous chairman of ITV and former executive of London Weekend Television (see Dyke In Talks To Take Top Job At ITV).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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