Edinburgh International TV Festival: Channel 5 controller admits "ratings do matter, share is everything to me"
"Ratings, revenue and reputation," are the three words new Channel 5 controller Ben Frow wants to be associated with the channel under his leadership.
During his session at the Edinburgh International TV Festival Frow was the only controller - out of him, Channel 4's Jay Hunt, BBC One's Charlotte Moore, ITV's Peter Fincham and Sky's Stuart Murphy, - to out and out admit that ratings matter to him.
He added: "Share is everything to me. It [Channel 5] might be a declining channel but if I told myself that I wouldn't get out of bed in the morning."
Of Jay Hunt's claims that Channel 5 skewed the figures to make it appear that the channel had beaten Channel 4 in the ratings, Frow said: "Well we all follow the same data. But if we did it was only one week out of 52 and for me it's not about beating Channel 4 it's about making Channel 5 as good as it can be. For me it's all about growing share for Channel 5."
One thing Channel 5 has done in an attempt to grow share is buy the Big Brother format, with the civilian version finishing this week and the celebrity version kicking off on Thursday night.
"I think it was genius of Channel 5 to take it," said Frow, despite admitting even he "didn't know half" of this year's 'celebrity' contestants.
Having a "beast" like Big Brother in the schedule has lead the channel to commission more "fun stuff" according to Frow. Explaining: "I need things that will sit nicely in front of bb at 9pm. What we need are those things that will bring an audience in at the beginning of the night and keep them until 11pm. I want people to look at the schedule and think 'I'm going to have half a bottle of wine and enjoy Channel 5 tonight."
According to Frow when it comes to Channel 5 programming "title is everything". He furthered: "You only have five words to punch through and make people curious to tune into Channel 5, we're too small to expect people to work out what we're offering them."
In discussing titles and the schedule around Big Brother Frow talks of a Kerry Katona show originally entitled 'Kerry Katona: My depression diaries' according to Frow that wasn't right for the schedule but change the name to 'Kerry Katona: How I lost £10m' "Bam, I'm there," he said.
Under his leadership Frow says he has "changed the culture slightly" as he has "clear guidelines of where I want the channel to go".
"I think the old sleazy, grubby interpretation of 5 has gone," he said. "Channel 5 is just an important place as Channel 4 and the BBC. I do get the feeling sometimes people view Channel 5 as an also ran."
In conversation with TV presenter Rick Edwards Frow describes Channel 5 as "for anybody" revealing that he would like to "move away from celebrity based things," despite shows like Celebrity Super Spa in the autumn line up.
He concluded: "We have five big pieces in the schedule Big Brother, Neighbours, Home and Away, the news and The Wright Stuff and we need to build around those.
"The days of being able to do double/triple CSI are at an end because America isn't producing that anymore...[We might be viewed as] blue collar and downmarket but we don't have to stay there."