Michael Grade Tells TV Midgets to ‘Share the Pain’

The good times are over boys. Michael Grade announced to the Sunday Times yesterday that overpaid TV talents like Ant and Dec (£5 million a year) and Simon Cowell (over £6 million p.a.) are going to have to take a pay cut in the face of tough market conditions. The TV station is set to cut between 1000 and 5000 jobs by early next year, including 430 from regional newsrooms, while Brand Republic reports that several Coronation Street actors have already had their contracts renegotiated.

“When there is a downturn of this severity, everybody has got to share the pain – the talent, the independent producers, the in-house producers,” Grade told Times journo James Ashton. “Undoubtedly, the natural trend of the talent market is down because the BBC is not that flush with money and Channel 4 is hurting. Who else is in the bidding for the big talent?”

In the face of the advertising downturn, ITV are gasping for cash. In fact, they’re so desperate they’ve recomissioned piss-poor 80s assault course gameshow The Krypton Factor, mainly because the business software company Sage has promised to bung them some money for it. Generous, eh? ITV entertainment controller Claire Horton says the channel will be bringing The Krypton Factor “bang up to date with state-of-the-art technology,” provided by…

Where this leaves Ant and Dec is another question. Maybe they’ll end up busking on the streets of Chiswick? Or perhaps they’ll ask British Telecom to fund their next light entertainment extravaganza…

Posted by Jack Roberts in Creative Economy | October 13, 2008 3:53PM |