RTS: Adam Crozier outlines ITV's vision of its future

Crozier ruled out working with online aggregators, such as YouTube, to ensure ITV keeps control of its content.

The company will invest in making improvements to ITV.com and then in experimenting with charging people for some of the content it puts on the site.

Crozier said he was keen to have a payment mechanism in place on ITV.com "within the next year to 18 months", though didn't see ITV going down the "News International route of putting everything behind a paywall".

Admitting uncertainty about what ITV could charge for and stressing it would "test and learn", he floated ideas such as alternative endings of 'Coronation Street' or programme previews.

But the immediate focus on ITV.com is about making it "a really robust user-friendly site".

"We haven't invested nearly enough money in making that happen and not just putting our current programming on there but changing the way we commission programmes...taking account of what works and doesn't work on the internet at the time we commission.

"Once we've got the site sorted out – we obviously have YouView launching next year as part of that strategy – we need to make ITV.com available across a lot more platforms and gradually we really need to build that two-way bridge to the consumer because actually, unlike Sky, we don’t have much of an end relationship direct with the consumer.

"In the future that two-way relationship will be much more important as we move towards targeted advertising and various other things.

"I think keeping control of the way we present our programmes and our channel brand and then making that available [will be important in ITV's future]."

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• RTS: Hunt dismisses idea of forcing ITV, C4 and C5 to deliver local content
• RTS: Hunt to pave the way for local TV, press and radio partnerships
• RTS: BBC chief floats partnerships with local TV operators
• RTS: Video on demand will replace lost viewers, says C4 chief Abraham

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk