The news that the arts programme South Bank Show will be axed in 2010 comes as no surprise.I have watched a steady decline in the quality of ITV over the past ten years.The end of SBS which was a really good arts programme was one of the few programmes that was remotely challenging to ITV viewers. It never assumed that its audience are idiots or that culture was something to be ashamed of.

You look at ITV and you see a channel that has become a clapped out whorehouse of a channel.Old episodes of Quincy,gamesshows,Hell's Kitchen, X Factor and Emmerdale Farm. There is not one single programme of any intellectual weight. No current affairs shows like Weekend World or World in Action. The people who run ITV must assume that its audience are morons interested in soaps, celebrities and reality TV. Michael Grade has not improved the quality of ITV's output at all.

Those of us who watch television, have noted the amount of quality US drama on TV from The Wire to Damages. None of them on ITV! In addiction, when was the alst time that we saw a British drama that we all discussed at work the next day??Cracker?

One of the greatest documentaries ever made ,The World at War ,was made on ITV in the 1970s. Today, no tv boss would approve that sort of television.I assume that they would conclude that today's viewers are not interested in history or culture.Let's feed them crap like Emmerdale or Loose Women.

I can recall the days of The Sweeney,Upstairs Downstairs and Minder. Now there are no decent sitcoms produced, or even gameshows like Blockbusters.What have is a ratings obsessed, dumbed down channel that is risk averse with its eye on the bottom line.

The most tragic thing is that we have allowed this to happen. We would rather watch X Factor than a drama that appeals to our intelligence (like The Wire). If we want to blame anyone the sad state of our television,we only need to look in the mirror.