ITN Attack BBC News At Ten

ITN has reportedly called on the Government to preasurise the BBC into bringing back the Nine O’Clock News.

According to press reports ITN sent a briefing note to Downing Street arguing that the BBC’s News At Ten was failing to attract viewers and should be restored to its original 9pm slot.

The BBC moved its flagship 9pm news programme to 10pm last year after assuring the governemnt that the move would attract more viewers. ITN claim that the average audience for the BBC’s nightly news has fallen from 5.2 million in 1999 to 4.8 million for the first eight months of this year and argue that the BBC must be held accountable.

A spokesperson for the BBC today said: “ITN is attemtping an obvious publicity stunt. The numbers they are quoting for this year only run up until the end of August and offer an inaccurate picture. The actual average audience for the News At Ten up until last week was 5 million proving that the move has infact halted a decline in viewing.”

ITN has been engaged in a bitter battle for ratings with the BBC since ITV caved in to pressure from the ITC and restored its 11pm news programme to the original 10pm slot three nights a week.

He added: “In July the DCMS issued a statement confirming that our decision to move the news to 10pm had been a successful one. Since 1996 viewing figures had been declining by 250,000 each year and the fact that the News At Ten now attracts an average of 5 million viewers shows that the move has halted a decline in viewing.”