What can be said about ITV at the minute? It's Big Brother "beater" is doing appallingly (with an added bonus that Channel 4 is beating it in the ratings). The company ditched one (admittedly awful sounding) Saturday night show after just one show. And the group boss is dithering around wondering whether to quit or not. Well if that doesn't make him look like a lame duck, goodness knows what does.

Now I'm pragmatic - I know that we're never going to get back the ITV of yesteryear. Yes we can dream that the old days of ABC, Rediffusion, ATV and so on, will return but it's not.

However it's pretty clear that ITV has lost its way. Its response to its recent problems have been to cut staff and cut budgets - hardly imaginative.

But then, perhaps that's symbolic of the person in charge. A key part of his career in recent years has consisted of doing just that, over and over and over again - merger after merger to form ITV plc, redundancy after redundancy as people leave.

True during his reign, a multi-channel strategy was formed - ITV2 and ITV3 are doing reasonably well - but even that could be said to be far too little, far too late.

If the network is to survive, then it needs someone in charge now with their eye on the right ball - the viewer. It needs programmes that people want to watch, that advertisers want to advertise during. It is possible.

Will it get it? Well that remains to be seen...