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ITV's much reported jobs cuts could be great news for their digital content provision. Perhaps this flies in the face of common sense but the reason it's likely to be true is that ITV's online cutbacks represent a retrenchment, and a return to what the broadcaster traditionally does best: content. The Guardian's headline that 'ITV Consumer [is] set to cut 80 jobs' could easily be re-parsed as 'ITV to focus online efforts on producing content-led propositions'.

The broadcaster is moving away from commercially-driven websites that have often strayed very far from ITV's established expertise - does anyone really flick open their web browser with the thought 'Let's compare some prices using ITV's website'? When's the last time you thought 'ITV' when you wanted to place a bet or find a service from an online directory? If the answer to those questions are 'no' and 'never' respectively, it begs the question what ITV is doing running Price Terrier (shopping comparison site), ITV Play (for gambling) or Scoot (a services directory).