GMTV And Carlton Heavily Criticised By ITC

The Independent Television Commission has sharply criticised the first year’s performance of both GMTV and Carlton. The ITC has today published the 1993 Performance Reviews of the 15 regional Channel 3 licences, GMTV, Teletext and Channel 4. These reviews report on the first full year of broadcasting. The ITC, whilst acknowledging that the new regional licensees had extra difficulties in adjusting (Meridian, Carlton and Westcountry, and GMTV), still found sufficient reason for criticism of GMTV and Carlton.

The ITC has issued a formal warning to GMTV, in view of its “unsatisfactory performance” over 1993 as a whole. There were shortfalls in the required amounts of news, current affairs and children’s information, especially in the beginning of the year. There have been discussions with GMTV covering the areas that the ITC wishes to see improved, namely in the quality of current affairs and children’s programming; the formal warning reminds the company that it must comply fully with the terms of its licence in 1994. GMTV’s performance will be reviewed again in September; if no significant improvement is reached, then the ITC is likely to include sanctions.These could range from a fine, to shortening of the licence or even ending the licence. A fine could be as much as £2 million.

Carlton was heavily criticised for its network performance, being “well below expectations.” Many of Carlton’s proposed network programmes were rejected, and those that were shown were “not distinctive or of high quality”. The ITC “wishes to see a significant improvement in 1994 and beyond.” Carlton’s application promised 521 hours of programming to the network in 1993; only 128 hours were transmitted. The few programmes to achieve positive comments from the ITC were Franks Stubbs Promotes and The Good Sex Guide. Carlton’s regional programming, while not so heavily criticised, was described as “variable” in quality. The ITV Network Centre as a whole was criticised for being “cautious and predictable”, while the programming supplied by each licensee for its own local area was praised. Although the ITC acknowledged that some of the best quality programming was from drama, it was critical because the range of subject matter in 1993 was severely limited to crime based stories.

Channel 4 was praised for its overall performance; apart from occasional warnings about offensive language, in many programme areas “high standards of quality, innovation and distinctiveness were achieved.”

The review of Teletext’s performance showed problems in the early months, but by September the service had achieved “good overall quality”.

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