ITC Questions ITV’s Commitment To Its Licence Terms
The ITC today published its 1996 Annual Performance Reviews of the 18 terrestrial TV licences: the 15 regional ITV licensees, GMTV, Channel 4 and Teletext.
Teletext received a favourable report and GMTV was congratulated on rectifying the complaints highlighted in the previous year’s report. ITV and Channel 4 performed satisfactorily, but each were found to have some deficiencies in their services.
ITV was criticised for narrowing the range of its programming output. The ITC is concerned about diminishing diversity in the service brought about by increased drama, entertainment and features and, by corresponding reductions in documentaries, arts and children’s drama. Network provision of documentaries fell by a third year-on-year, from 1 hour per week in 1995 to 40 minutes in 1996. Arts programming fell from 33 minutes to 31 minutes and children’s drama dropped from 1 hour 16 minutes to 1 hour ten minutes during the review period.
ITV’s 2 flagship series, regularly praised by the ITC, Network First and The South Bank Show were both scheduled less frequently and with a narrower range of subject matter than in previous years. This led the ITC to conclude: “The strength of ITV’s continuing commitment to regular serious documentary and arts coverage, clearly set out in the licence applications, appears now to be in question.” The ITC has called on ITV to rectify the situation this year. The 1995 Report also criticised the preoccupation with crime and the emergency services in drama programmeshttp:*ITC Publishes 1995 Performance Reviews. ITV was found to have made no attempt to reduce this type of programming in 1996. In addition, the Commission called for more peak-time comedy and entertainment shows.
Looking at the individual ITV licensees, Carlton was the cause of particular concern at the ITC. Carlton failed to ensure that certain programmes, predominantly for the network, complied with ITC codes. The number of formal interventions by the ITC increased from 4, for Carlton programmes broadcast in 1995, to 8 in 1996. This included 2 formal warnings.
Granada was asked to reaffirm its commitment to regional identity; the amount of regional programmes only just exceeded the minimum requirement. HTV’s regional programming was also found to be lacking, although not in programme time, but in the resources assigned to them. LWT had no problems in this respect, however it was asked to refresh its entertainment and drama output. While, Yorkshire sparked concern over the portrayal of violence in 2 network series
As a network, ITV was praised for significantly reducing the amount of violence in early evening programming; overall violence on ITV declined to less than 1% of programme time. Towards the end of the year, there were successful new developments in the range of drama, including costume drama, the ITC hopes that the network will be able to build on these improvements.
A number of faults were also found in Channel 4’s programming. The proportion of repeats increased in peak time and, by 1% overall. The ITC believes that a significant reduction in the level of repeats should be priority now that additional funds are available. It also called for an increase in programmes reflecting the regional diversity of Britain. 78% of 1996 programming was commissioned from London-based producers.
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