ITV Granted Judicial Review Of ITC News Direction

ITV has today confirmed that it has been granted a judicial review of the Independent Television Commission’s (ITC) direction regarding the scheduling of the ITV Nightly News. The judge has made an order for expedition and directed that the hearing shall be no later than the end of September.

Today’s move came after the television industry regulator issued a directive to ITV licensees to reschedule its Nightly News programme after ratings for regional and national news programmes slumped following the demise of News At Ten (see ITC Says ITV Must Reschedule Nightly News). ITV’s proposed measures to stem the falling ratings were rejected by the ITC who said it would force the scheduling changes to be made (see ITV’s Battle With The ITC Could End In Court). At this point ITV applied for a judicial review of the direction (see ITV Applies For Judicial Review Of News At Ten Decision).

A spokesperson for the ITC today welcomed the decision to clear the issue and said a hearing before the end of September would hopefully clear the issue before its rescheduling direction comes into effect on 4 December.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 ITC: 020 7306 7743