ITV Fade to grey

«Trend to zero» is the nightmare warning that Charles Allen, ITV’s chief executive, should have pasted across his wall. For that is the big worry investors have about Britain’s largest commercial broadcaster. Its audience share continues to fall. And where the audience goes so, in the end, must advertising. Last year’s bumper results can’t hide that. They merely offer a reprieve. Cost savings from the Carlton-Grenada merger have now been all but wrung out. Sundry non-core assets have also been ...