When Michael Grade presented his long-awaited strategic update to investors last September, nine months after sweeping into ITV from the BBC, investors greeted it with, at best, a shrug.

Analysts were instantly sceptical about the new targets, which included a plan to double global sales from its television production arm to £1.2bn by 2012 and to quintuple online revenues to £150m by 2010, helped by Emmerdale-themed bingo on ITV.com.