Fincham: Cotton would understand MacTaggart

Peter Fincham

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ITV director of television Peter Fincham has invoked the spirit of Bill Cotton to help defend entertainment programming, after claiming in his MacTaggart lecture that the genre is under threat at all the major broadcasters.

Speaking in a video interview with broadcastnow.co.uk, Fincham said that popular entertainment shows were at risk at the BBC and Channel 4, as well as at ITV.

Click here to watch the interview

He described Cotton as "one of the great impresarios of the BBC", and said entertainment had been "threatened all the way through the history of the BBC".

"I like to think he [Cotton] would have understood my speech because he stood for public service and entertainment going hand in hand. When I was at the BBC, you felt you always had to keep asserting that tradition. There were always the massed ranks of people who would turn TV into something altogether more educational and utilitarian. With some people you get a sense of distrust of genuinely popular TV."

He added that he was wedded to the idea of ITV1 as a broad channel covering all genres, but accepted there was a major debate to be had about whether these kind of "national" channels could be sustained.

"If you believe they are good for TV, and good for audiences, then is that something that should be helped or is it something that should be hindered? ITV1, to be honest, often feels as though it is hindered. I don't think it should be."

But Fincham also insisted his MacTaggart lecture was not a bid to put pressure on the regulator.

"I wasn't thinking in terms of leverage with Ofcom, it wasn't a speech to lobby Ofcom. ITV has a number of issues with Ofcom that are very important to us: CRR, our advertising formula, ad minutage - I didn't want to go into those technicalities, it didn't seem appropriate on the podium for the MacTaggart lecture.

"But the point I would come back to is it seems when talking about PSB that we have settled the four definitions, taken them for granted. I want to go back and say no, I think you've got the definition wrong."

Click here to see Kate Garraway, Alex Graham, John Whittingdale and Aaquil Ahmed give their reactions to Fincham's MacTaggart.