STV was among the winners in Lord Carter's Digital Britain report after its two stations were named as the pilot for a newly funded news service and its production company finally secured independent status. The company's executives and staff, who partied with guests last week in central Glasgow, clearly had something to cheer after a difficult couple of years.
The restructuring of STV under the current management is now complete and attention has turned to programme-making which is expected to be re-energised by Carter's recommendations.
With Alan Clements on board as head of content, the company can be
expected to fulfil some long-standing ambitions. There was obvious delight last week that its wish to achieve independent status has opened up the commissioning opportunities. One fruit of the partnership being forged with the BBC will be announced shortly: its first-ever series for the corporation. Expect an announcement in a couple of weeks that it has been commissioned for a daytime series for BBC2.
Shares in STV rose sharply on the publication of the report, a 10 per cent rise to 66p which reflected investor sentiment that it had done well out of the proposals.
The company will issue a pre-close trading statement on Friday when it will give further pointers to its prospects, though there will be reminders that the advertising market remains tough.
Even so, it is heartening to see the company thriving when so many wrote it off so many times and believed it was only a matter of time before ITV, its bigger cousin, snapped it up.
Now it is ITV that finds itself struggling and looking for a chief executive. Lord Carter has been tipped for the post, though he was also linked with Telstra in Australia until that post was filled earlier this month. Don't rule out former BSkyB boss Tony Ball who remains in the frame, despite taking up a boardroom post at BT which has a pay-TV division. As the media sector blurs and co-operation becomes the norm it is less likely that this would be seen as a conflict of interest.
Too little too late from calculating GoodwinAT THE end of the day, former Royal Bank chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin wasn't a bad man, nor was he incompetent. Ambitious? Yes. Risk taker? Clearly. And in the last couple of years, he let ambition and risk take control of his hitherto better judgment. He also surrounded himself with cronies who would tell him what a great job he was doing, even when they thought otherwise.
A man who declines in this way may deserve criticism for his mistakes, but can earn pity if he shows enough humility and contrition for his actions. Sadly, in Fred's case there was little sign of either, earning himself the opprobrium of an outraged public. His initial refusal to budge on the pensions issue looked like stubborn self-denial and shameless arrogance.
So what prompted last week's decision to hand back part of his pension pot? It came out of the blue, but with no evidence he had done anything but follow the rule book.
It followed a typically detailed and forensic inquiry that was appropriate for an accountant with a keen eye on detail. It was also the result of persistence on the part of Sir Philip Hampton, the new RBS chairman, and the possibility that further action may have been taken to recover part of the pension.
Fred clearly hoped that his gesture would ease his route back to normality. Instead, it looks like another calculated manoeuvre by someone who may finally have made the right decision, but has left it too late.
What Walsh can do to help BA? Find the exitJUST what planet does British Airways boss Willie Walsh live on? He has asked his 40,000 staff to forego a month's salary, as he has done, but forgets that even without his £60,000 monthly pay packet he'll still be able to pay his mortgage – unlike his employees. In four weeks, he earns several times the annual salary of some of those that he expects to follow his example.
Walsh's crass appeal will do nothing for morale and only indicates what sort of a mess the airline has got itself into, with problems mounting on all fronts, from the pensions deficit to the size of the fuel bill. It made its biggest loss for 25 years and prospects are poor.
The best route Walsh could take would be towards the exit and let the board employ a chief executive on a salary commensurate with the company's ability to pay.
