Television - Andrew Billen discovers the joys of creating his own schedule

As the year closes, the sharks circle ITV. David Liddiment, the company's director of channels, Steve Anderson, its factual controller, and Claudia Rosencrantz, its head of entertainment, began the year wanting to make waves: the return of News at Ten; a gay drama for Monday nights; Ant and Dec in prime time; a postmodern soap opera to match the return of Crossroads; footy, not Cilla, at teatime. Do not, at least, accuse them of lacking the courage to swim in uncharted territory. But now the wave-making looks more as if ITV1 was thrashing around against the ebbing tide of its own demographics. Its very ordinary but well-funded rival, BBC1, has become the nation's most popular channel since 1955. In the two syllables of its own most recently shelved show, ITV1 has been Shafted.

ITV has many problems. At heart, however (and its symbol is a heart), the difficulty is that it no longer knows what it is. May I remind it? It is a public service network made up of regional broadcasters. Once upon a time, before merger mania, people identified with their ITV regions. ITV's early evening news magazines mostly thrashed the BBC's offerings, which covered much wider geographical areas. When I travel around now, I am shocked to discover not only how local company names have been dumped in favour of the Carlton logo (does anyone know what a Carlton might be, other than the doorman in Rhoda?), but how cheap and threadbare those shows now look, with their uncharismatic presenter huddled in a cramped set and shot by remote cameras. No wonder Anderson is considering folding them into a news hour linked by ITN, an ITV Nationwide.

But if ITV's local programmes look demoralised, this is nothing compared to what has happened to ITN. The news provider, once proud to the point of pomposity, has been systematically humiliated by the network over the past years. The revival of what should really be called ITV News at When? could hardly have been done more apologetically, with the Ten stealing on air some nights as late as 11.10pm. Under the terms of the Dutch auction by which it has just won a new contract, ITN will now have much less to spend than before, will be expected to whip up an interest in a "lifestyle agenda", and is banned from mentioning its own name, which, we should recall, is Independent Television News, a once prestigious brand. ITN is treated as an embarrassment to ITV - which is strange, as it is ITV, in the shape of Carlton and Granada, that owns most of it. Its diminution diminishes ITV itself.

ITV's failures, which flow from an intolerance towards its own past, should depress us because it is one of the pillars that support quality, free-to-air British television. (The cynical demotion of BBC1 to a host for soap operas, a category in which I include Casualty and Holby City, means that the other pillar can hardly be thought solid, either.) I share the network's frustration that the first-class Bob and Rose failed in the ratings because it was too sophisticated (or too gay) for Channel 3 audiences. With Popstars, ITV created a genuine phenomenon that can at least be mentioned in the same breath as Big Brother. Cold Feet now runs on only half a tank, but it is still the defining drama of the decade so far. There is good and original work being done on ITV. Unfortunately, too much of what is good is not original, and too much of what is original is . . .

But the channel now has one problem behind it. The ITV channels have, at last, a home on the Sky Digital platform, and thus on its electronic programme guide. In satellite homes, this makes it a contender again for inclusion in an evening's viewing. In my home, it means something more. I can watch the best of ITV exactly when I fancy. The biggest change in my viewing habits this year, I should explain, is that I now very rarely watch live television at all.

The reason is the personal video recorder incorporated into my new digibox, which Sky installed (so far, I should say, for free, although I expect to be charged eventually) in October. Sky Plus is a personal video recorder and satellite receiver, an all-in, and a less elaborate version of the more famous TiVo. It makes recording and recalling TV programmes as easy as viewing them live. The consequence of having Sky Plus is that I now never watch a programme I had not planned to.

The downside for the viewer is that this removes all the serendipity from your viewing. It must alarm the channel controllers, too. The "home viewer" (as David Letterman calls us) becomes his own scheduler. The consequences of clever systems such as TiVo and Sky Plus will, I predict, eventually be huge. They will reduce to meaninglessness such ideas as building an audience, hammocking difficult programmes between dead certs, and channel loyalty. What it will not affect is the quest for quality in a television environment obsessed by soaps, quizzes and formatted reality shows.

Whatever may be its commercial failures as a broadcaster, as a producer ITV will remain crucial to determining that environment. I wish it many secure places in my private electronic schedule.

Andrew Billen is a staff writer on the London Evening Standard

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