Yet up pops that cheeky chappie Michael Grade complaining that ITV's profits have dropped to a mere £91m because of a slump in advertising, and saying he wants to dump the company's costly commitment to public service broadcasting. Er, which programmes are you talking about, Michael?

Scanning last week's schedules for the magic PSB, for which ITV gets a free broadcast licence worth many millions, it was hard to find. Apart from news, regional productions and children's shows at an hour of the morning when only little horrors leap out of bed, there were none of the flagship current affairs series, serious social issues and probing UK political programmes that once made the channel 'must' viewing.

The nearest I could find was Jeremy Kyle, a repulsive host arguing with revolting people about their sordid problems: You've Been A Bad Mum For 24 Years… Stop Beating Me And Start Paying For Your Child!… Prove I'm The Dad. ITV claims it is a "lifestyle" programme, but I do not want Asbo candidates screeching at each other in my living room, thank you.

Of course, it is not lifestyle but voyeurism, like the freakshows of grossly obese people, Siamese twins, bearded ladies, patients with grotesque physical and psychological conditions and other human oddities who should be pitied instead of displayed on TV to be ogled. Schedules are now dominated by exhibitions of cruelty, rudeness and humiliation amounting to bullying. It is not amusing to watch Simon Cowell or Piers Morgan ridiculing some simpleton on a talent show.

Grade and the other television tycoons can complain about the cost of making PSB programmes, the impact of digital and the internet creaming off advertising revenue; but the failure is theirs in forgetting how to make programmes that interest the viewers without insulting their intelligence.

Grade took over as ITV chief executive, promising to spend £1bn a year on improving content, but much-hyped shows such as Echo Beach, The Palace and Rock Rivals were flops. Now he is pinning his hopes on a remake of The Prisoner, yet another version of Wuthering Heights, the return of I'm A Celebrity and Ant And Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway – a prospect that tempts me to take my brand-new super-set to the dump.

The BBC charter got it right 80 years ago: "to inform, educate and entertain". Although Auntie Beeb has been overrun by horny-handed gardeners, celebrity chefs, overpaid oafs who cannot pronounce their 'r's and chippy news bimbos, they still give us watchable and sometimes brilliant productions for our £3bn annual licence fee.

Last week I felt I got my money's worth with New Tricks (Last Of The Summer Wine with crime), the unmissable Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage and the compulsive House Of Saddam. Even The Tudors was a well-spent hour, although it is about as historically accurate as Carry On Henry (which was originally to have been titled Anne Of A Thousand Lays. Not a lot of people know that).

If Grade feels ITV's PSB commitment is burdensome, Ofcom should let him drop it and pay a commercial fee for the licence and compete in the real TV world where companies have to make worthwhile programmes. The BBC, Channel 4, which, although commercially self-funded is a state-owned public service broadcaster, and Sky News are strong enough to guarantee diversity and independence of news and comment.

First, TV bosses should decide what public service broadcasting is. The BBC is forking out a reported £200m to show Formula One motor racing for the next five years but what is 'public service' about the boredom of billboards-on-wheels whizzing round in circles and a British driver who is a walking advert for a Spanish bank? The IOC is making £2.6bn from the TV rights for the Beijing Olympics and we will never know how much British broadcasters are paying to show us which competitors win gold medals for having the best chemists. ITV was happy to splash out £26m on the foreign football-fest of Euro 2008, yet it cannot find the cash to buy Scotland's World Cup football matches for showing on free-to-watch terrestrial TV. Formula One is a minority sport for boys with toys, while the people's choice would be to watch our national team playing the national game, which has far more players and spectators – even if the Scottish team's qualifying campaign ends in the inevitable disappointment.

The great unanswered question is: how is it that TV, the ultimate popular medium with a huge captive audience, is controlled by airheads who have no idea how to use it?

The great Ed Murrow, an exemplar of broadcasting with brains and guts, said TV that does not teach, illuminate and inspire is "just lights and wires in a box". If you struggle to find something worth watching, please do not adjust your set. It's the programmes that are duff, not your telly.