There is certainly a strong possibilty that by this time next week ITV plc will have been taken over by another company. ITV's share price fell below the psychologically important £1 barrier at close of trading yesterday (Thursday) and at 4.20pm today stood at 97p, so unless Charles Allen can perform a miracle ITV's share price will continue to fall during the coming week.
If Love Island continues to perfom dismally then ITV will either have to put on a brave face and claim that it is successful with its specific target audience, or alternatively pull it from the schedules altogether. Axing Love Island prematurely would be acutely embarrassing because it was meant to be the event that would rescue ITV1's ratings over the summer period.
Any potential purchaser of ITV would not only have to deal with contract rights renewal along with ITV's legacy advertisers but salvage the greatly tarnished reputation of what was at one time a "licence to print money". Much of what was ITV's audience no longer tolerates second best with more channels to choose from, so regaining that lost audience will be incredibly difficult.
These are major stumbling blocks for any potential purchaser of ITV plc and it will be interesting to see how any new owner deals with them, though delisting from the stock exchange ought to be the number one priority for securing ITV's future. Regardless of what's going to happen, next week looks like it's going to be a momentous period in the history of ITV.
