Tuesday, 6 November 2007

3rd. Michael Grade


Job: executive chairman, ITVAge: 64Industry: broadcastingTurnover: £2.18bnStaff: 5,957Salary: £825,0002006 ranking: 7
He began his career as a sports journalist with the
Daily Mirror in 1960. There after Grade joined the BBC in 1984, he was Director of Programmes. However Grade left the BBC to join Channel 4 in 1987, acting as Chief Executive, then shifted back to the BBC. On 28 November 2006, Grade and the BBC confirmed that he was to resign from his post with the BBC to replace Sir Peter Burt as Chairman and Charles Allen as Chief Executive of commercial rival ITV, becoming Executive Chairman of ITV plc effective from early 2007.

What he did and planning to do:
· Grade was also responsible for the repeating of
Australian soap opera Neighbours, at first purely an afternoon programme, in a later timeslot. This proved to be a successful scheduling decision that still remains in place as of 2007, and paid off at the time with audiences in excess of 15 million viewers for the new 5.35pm showings.

· He also came close to completely axing the sitcom
Blackadder, judging the first series to be unfunny; because of high cost (it featured extensive location sequences). He demanded that the price for renewing the series was that it be a completely studio-based production with an audience. It went on to become one of the most successful British sitcoms of all time.

· Grade said the network needed to be "more innovative" and "take more risks", and said a turnaround in its fortunes was about "doing a hundred things maybe just 1% better ... There is still a great deal more to do."

· Grade will has signed on former Sky Networks managing director Dawn Airey, whose job as ITV director of global content will be to take the broadcaster's programming onto new platforms.

Grade rises three places from his position in last year's Media Guardian 100, when he was still at the BBC, It is a reflection of the shifting balance of power," said one panelist. Grade in my opinion take not take the place for third due to the fact that Mark Thompson has more staff under his control and a higher salary also Thompson drops down to three but beats Grade as the BBC remains the single most important cultural influence in the UK, a broadcasting leviathan which spans TV, radio and online.

No comments: