5. What do you honestly think about ad-funded programming? Is it a 'win-win' way to spend less of his own production budget or, to paraphrase Andy Burnham's comments on product placement, something that 'contaminates' the programme schedule?
6. Comedy Programmes such as 'Flight of the Conchords' have become Cult films within the UK without having a prior stretch on TV. With many people downloading the entire episodes online, how do you see comedy on TV combating this in the future? Are you worried that people will start looking to the Internet first when seeking new comedy?
7. Is it possible for ITV (or any broadcaster/production co) in the digital age to recapture the now seemingly lost art of 'all round family entertainment‘? Like Only Fools and Horses etc - watched and loved by 3 generations at the same time. Is this still an ambition for ITV or has that era passed and now is it time to use digital channels to target certain audience segments?
8. What’s the future of reality TV? Shows like X Factor and 'Im a Celeb get me out of here' continue to pull in the viewers, yet more and more viewers are beginning to get bored (most recent of series of Big Brother prime example) But given that they still pull in more viewers than the average serial/drama....will we probably still have the same reality formats for the next few years at least?
9. I disagree that the all round family shows are extinct, and that X-factor is a great example of this. I do however think that the consumption patterns of these programs have changed, in that the family may not consume these all together any more, but all still watch it (ie online and repeats on ITV2 at different times). Do you agree that this is the case? If so, what have ITV done to cater to these shifts?
10. Have you had the pleasure of meeting Cheryl Cole with X-Factor this year?
