Just before Christmas I was interviewed by The Times Media Correspondent Matthew Moore about the Christmas TV schedule and in particular the perception that ITV was not trying as hard as BBC.

It’s a good piece and actually does represent what I said, the main point being that ITV has never taken Christmas as seriously as advertisers want to advertise in the run up to the Christmas period but not during it.

I did make two points not in the piece, firstly that the UK is really coming into line with most other countries where TV more or less goes on holiday for Christmas rather than ramping up for it. I also pointed out that the BBC schedule was really repetitive. Indeed the only show over Christmas that got ‘old school’ high ratings was Gavin & Stacey, a new addition to the BBC Christmas Day schedule. Other than that the ratings continued a noticeable downward trend over the last decade. I can’t provide a link as you need to be a subscriber, so here is a scan of the article which is readable if you click on it.