Three Is The Magic Number

It seems right for ITV to be run jointly by the man from Asda and the man from the Royal Mail. ITV is commercial, yet somehow not quite part of the private sector, exactly. It has a unique position in the nation’s life and hearts, hence that 3 button on every remote control in the land.

To which it has no divine right. Which is to say, no divine right to exist at all.

Just how many people watch television on the Internet compared to the number of people who watch television on the television? Just which digital channel has anything remotely approaching ITV’s viewing figures? And has no one noticed how massively dependent on terrestrial television is digital television for its content? Yet this immensely privileged commercial network expects public money to provide such basics as regional news, and children's programmes.

It is very high time to re-regionalise ITV under a combination of municipal and mutual ownership, and to apply that same model (but with central government replacing local government, subject to very strict parliamentary scrutiny) to Channel Four.

I say again, there is no divine right to that 3 button. Nor, come to that, to the 4 button or the 5 button.