Culture secretary Chris Smith has written to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) voicing his concerns that ITV’s removal of the News At Ten is restricting the population’s access to current events and political news. Although the contents of the letter have not been made public, a report in today’s Independent says that Smith is unhappy with the viewing figures being achieved by the teatime regional news bulletin as well as the Network’s Early Evening News programme which airs at six o’clock.
When the ITC permitted ITV to drop News At Ten a year ago (see ITC Agrees To News At Ten Move), a set of conditions was placed on the Network with regard to both audience levels and the range and quality of news and entertainment programmes broadcast during peak-time. At the time a number of Government ministers were understood to be unhappy with the schedule changes. These included the Prime Minister, Chris Smith and Gerald Kaufman, chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
The ITC said that it would review ITV’s performance after twelve months and would take action if its conditions were not being met by the Network. However, many in the industry regarded the Commission’s review as merely a formality, rather than a rigorous and pro-active assessment of whether the schedule change should be permitted to continue.
A spokesperson for the ITC today defended the review, saying: “[It] is absolutely not at all a formality. The conditions set out by the ITC last year must be fulfilled by ITV.” The Commission has to assess whether the content of programmes in peak is satisfactory in terms of quality and range, as well as whether enough people are watching the regional and national news bulletins, when compared to previous audiences for the old schedule.
ITV has a separate licence committment to news programmes inside and outside peak time – 6:30-10:30pm. In this way, the new Early Evening News, at 6:30pm, must be compared to the performance of the old News At Ten, as both fall within peak-time. Similarly, the new Nightly News programme, which airs at 11:00pm, will be compared by the ITC to the old new at 5:40pm, as both programmes are outside peak-time.
The ITC’s review of the Network’s performance runs until March 2000, although it is unlikely the formal results will be available until a month or so after that time.
Independent Television Commission: 0171 255 3000 Department of Culture, Media and Sport: 0171 211 6272 ITV Network Centre: 0171 843 8000
