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There are fears of a 'cut to the bone' as ITV lined up Adam Crozier as their new Chief Executive. Crozier has never worked in media, but has experience of handling the media in his pervious roles in advertising and running the Football Association. He has spent the last seven years fighting public service unions in the modernisation of the Royal Mail.
On his watch, tens of thousands of jobs have been axed, nearly 5,000 post offices shut and the firm has rung up hundred million pound deficits. According to the the public sector earnings chart, his pay package was five times higher than Prime Minister and puts him above the heads of Network Rail, the BBC and Olympic Games Organising Committee. The CWU union once said: "You have got one of the highest paid public servants in Britain and his agenda is to reduce pay and terms and conditions for the workers who work for him." The troubled broadcaster's shares immediately shot up 0.8p (1.41%) to 57.35p - three years ago they where 130p a share. Big losses - job cuts - studios mothballed
Losses for ITV were totaled at £2.7bn for 2008, jobs numbers have been slashed and studios mothballed.
The network's £1 billion programme budget will be cut by £65 million this year, online businesses Friends Reunited and Scoot will be sold, and it's network of ITV local web services will be scaled back.
Grade's tenure was dogged by balancing the books in light of the major shortfall caused in part by the advertising recession - the broadcasting union BECTU argues it's mainly a result of mis-management.
High profile appointment
The position has been effectively open since April last year when ex BBC boss Michael Grade announced he was giving up day-to-day running of the company
It seems the board has gone for a high profile appoint meant to put the commercial broadcaster back on track.
An internal candidate was expected, John Cresswell, currently chief operating officer at ITV, and Rupert Howell, managing director of brand and commercial operations.
ITV's director of programmes, Peter Fincham, who resigned as controller of BBC One after a scandal over footage of the Queen, was also another contender.
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