The huge investment in new media needs deep pockets from big players if we are

The huge investment in new media needs deep pockets from big players if we are to compete with Europe's best.Given the significant holdings Vivendi and CLT-UFA already have in the UK, it is a good idea to have as many big British teams as possible in the European Champions' League. Nonetheless, that's big enough to enable United/Carlton to sit alongside Granada and Pearson on the world stage. Ibiza Uncovered , Prickly Heat and Tonight With Trevor McDonald are all made by the Granada Media Group. Imagine the press reaction if they had been produced by Carlton.United/Carlton and Granada would be both big enough to embrace the risks needed to create the best programmes for the viewers at home and abroad. Hiring or developing talent, building the best conditions for creativity to blossom and taking chances on development, do not come cheap.

Together United/Carlton can create production jobs, invest significantly in on-line services, increase exports of British-made programmes, enhance the commitment to digital roll out. Competition between two rivals of significant size will sharpen quality.Yet even together, in production terms United/Carlton will still only be half Granada's size. Yet, such is the power of perception over reality that the programme achievements of United and Carlton are consistently ignored. However, Hornblower has just taken on the might of the US networks to win two Prime Time American Emmys; Graham Norton won a British Comedy Award; our world-class wildlife programmes make United the biggest commercial producer of natural history in the world and recently earned a Queen's Award for Export.

From a standing start United, based upon three franchises with virtually no history of network production, has built a programme portfolio of quality in a few years.Of course it's hard to write about your own output without sounding like Alastair Campbell describing Tony Blair. This shows a level of sloppiness usually only seen in the Royle Family 's front room. Granada has inherited a terrific production legacy and makes some excellent programmes, but to allow them to further dominate commercial television production would thin the range offered to viewers They already make 47 per cent of ITV's output. A take-over by Granada, of United, Carlton, or both would significantly narrow the artistic arteries of ITV, because it would reduce healthy rivalry.Granada's success has been built up over four decades, its commercial cornerstones are the long-running series like Coronation Street and Emmerdale. They must all make profits, keep the City sweet, satisfy the advertisers and at the same time maintain audiences in a rapidly splintering market.Some writers have made the assumption that a one-company ITV controlled by Granada is the only way forward. Viewer sovereignty can only grow and ITV is in the front line of this All three ITV majors have a difficult circle to square. The impact on the viewer has been largely ignored.ITV might now march to a more intensely commercial drum than when I first joined, but its overall aims are surprisingly similar: a well-funded network schedule and a good regional output delivering home-made British programmes to large audiences with subsequent profits to shareholders This creates a virtuous cycle.