Channel 5 chief attacks ITV for being 'bland'

Dawn Airey, the front-runner in the race to run the beleaguered ITV network, spoke out yesterday to condemn the channel for being "bland" and lacking intelligence.

As speculation continues over whether she will leave her chief executive's chair at Channel 5 to take on a similar role at ITV, Ms Airey made clear just how big a task the job would be.

"ITV is shedding audience faster than a snake can get rid of its skin," she said. "I just think it's bland. It used to be a centre of excellence of popular drama, of entertainment. There are some nuggets. Coronation Street, when it is good, is brilliant. Airline is still a must-watch for me. I just don't go there for drama series in the way I used to."

Too many series, such as Peak Practice and Heartbeat were reaching the end of their working lives, Ms Airey told The Times.

"ITV has had fantastic leverage out of these properties for 10 years. But where is the new drama?"

Good new drama had to be part of the plan to revive the channel, which has seen its share of total viewing fall below BBC1's for the first time since commercial television began in the 1950s, she said.

"You need a couple more major entertainment hits and maybe something a little more discerning for a later-night audience and some new drama franchises."

Should Ms Airey secure the job, made vacant by the departure of Stuart Prebble in the aftermath of the ITV Digital collapse, the staff should not despair completely.

She enjoys its coverage of Formula One and Champions League football, while Pop Idol was "perfect television". "But intelligent entertainment? I can't find it."

Ms Airey, 41, is being courted by Carlton and Granada, the main partners in ITV, although she has not yet been offered the job.

At Channel 5, she is credited with seizing a 6.5 per cent share of the audience on a budget of £149m, much smaller than her rivals'.

She is known to be interested in the ITV job only on condition that she has the budget and the freedom to do what she thinks is required. She also wants compensation for what she would lose by leaving her current job where she stands to make a fortune if it were sold.

Current executives at ITV may feel some of her criticisms unfair. The channel has been proudly trumpeting its more adventurous dramas such as its contemporary version of Shakespeare's Othello and Bloody Sunday, a film about the events in Northern Ireland.

Pop Idol was the most popular entertainment programme on television this year while Ant and Dec's latest series, entitled I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, is proving a big draw.

A spokeswoman said the latest figures suggested an extra £25m investment in the autumn schedule was starting to pay dividends. Young audiences aged 16 to 34 went up 9 per cent in August and the overall audience is down only 2 per cent year on year to August, compared with a loss of 12 per cent for the year to July.