Culture secretary John Whittingdale has raised the prospect of the BBC being forced to move its main 10pm news programme as part of a review of its impact on commercial rivals.
In a speech that questioned the way the BBC competed against rivals such as ITV and Sky, Whittingdale also criticised BBC1 for failing to show more distinctive programming. The corporation’s most popular and expensive channel, with a £1.4bn budget, has recently been criticised for scheduling Strictly Come Dancing at the same time as ITV’s The X Factor.
Last month, ITV’s director Peter Fincham said that the BBC was, in effect, trying “to clip The X Factor’s wings” by scheduling Strictly against it.
“It is important to look at the impact the BBC has on commercial rivals,” Whittingdale told TV executives at the Royal Television Society in Cambridge. “To give one example, is it sensible that its main evening news bulletin goes out at the same time as ITV’s?”
The BBC News was pushed back an hour in 2000 by Greg Dyke as ITV moved its own main bulletin in a saga that became known as “news at when”.
In a wide-ranging speech in which Whittingdale said the renewal of the BBC’s charter was the right time to question the corporation’s entire system of funding, governance, performance and market impact, he said he had been surprised by the reaction of the industry to the government green paper published in July.....
Fundamentally I don't think the BBC could ever be forced to move its bulletin but it does raise the question of whether the Beeb should really be "competing" with rivals at that crucial slot, rather than offering an alternative time for news, regardless of "who got there first" etc.
It doesn't raise any questions given ITV's lack of commitment to the slot especially now ITV have even dropped NAT for Champions league highlights and will drop it forever when the their Contract rights renewal advert restrictions are eased. It was only moved forward from 10.30 so that ITV could cram more adverts into primetime and not have to commission shows for 10pm.
Whittingdale appears to be a Grade A troll, scrabbling around to try and find evidence for arguments about the BBC "crowding out" commercial rivals. The Ten has been on at 2200hrs since October 2000, what's the problem? There isn't one.
Given his interest in scheduling and prescribing the types of content public service broadcasters "should" be providing, maybe the Culture Secretary should take a look at the local TV channels his department set up, and try and sort that mess first.
NE
newsman1
How was News at Ten costing ITV money in the 1990s? Why would there have been fewer people watching news on ITV at ten in the late 1990s than in previous decades? I believe that's the reason for the main ITV national news been moved to 6:30 in 1999.
ITV left 10pm so the BBC moved in and did well. Then ITV realises its mistake, moves back and never regains an audience because it stuffed up.
One can't blame the BBC for being opportunistic. This just smacks of Tory desperation to undermine the broadcaster.
:-(
A former member
Just to point out there are few threads on this forum about the news changes and who were behide them, I might have to create a new one, there are plenty of news reports about this, including the ITV news at 7pm to cover all the boxes....
The thieving lying Tories should concentrate on looking after the sick and disabled who they have abandoned to the sick mind of IDS. That way perhaps they wouldn't have time to interfere in free speech or TV scheduling which is something that they have no expertise in (not that they are any good at anything other than causing misery to the nation)
My to the point message to Whittingdale is... BUTT OUT!
ITV left 10pm so the BBC moved in and did well. Then ITV realises its mistake, moves back and never regains an audience because it stuffed up.
One can't blame the BBC for being opportunistic. This just smacks of Tory desperation to undermine the broadcaster.
To be fair ITV had already announced they'd return to 10pm when the BBC announced with just two weeks notice they would move their bulletin. It was so last minute they had drama starting at 9.10pm for months, and it was somewhat unfair that ITV had to jump through many hoops to move their bulletin while the BBC didn't.
Anyhow, that was an argument for 15 years ago - the argument now is that the culture secretary should not be dictating the BBC schedule. Agree with scottish TV though is that he is effectively a troll - really think he has no intention of doing half the things he suggests but is using his power to try and scare the BBC into submission.
It was only moved forward from 10.30 so that ITV could cram more adverts into primetime and not have to commission shows for 10pm.
Well, indeed, and we've not heard from ITV in all this because I'm pretty sure they actually want to be opposite the BBC News and as mentioned actually moved the news back to 10pm to go up against it. If the Beeb moved the news to another slot, all that would happen would be that BBC1 would show other programmes at 10pm that would thrash ITV, and then thrash ITV when they were showing the news as well.
And also, of course, at lunchtime and teatime the BBC and ITV News are at different times and the Beeb wins there as well. If people wanted to watch the ITV News, they would watch that. They certainly used to, it used to thrash BBC News day in day out. They did it on a lower budget than the Beeb as well so it's hardly as if the Beeb are winning purely because they're throwing cash around.
I hope the BBC see the irony in being asked to move their main bit of weekday competition with ITV by a government and party that has spent the last 35 years extolling the virtues of competition. Also has the BBC forgotten it's independent from the government? This isn't Stalin's Russia what right does the government have to dictate the schedules of the BBC, and as part of the wider debate, the programmes it makes. The message here seems to be 'we [the government] want a free, independent, impartial BBC that does exactly the programmes we want it to, at times we want and for who we want as long as it doesn't show to many opinions we disagree with and doesn't produce programmes that highlight the fact it is better than its commercial sector equivalents as the BBC is putting a dent in our 'private is better' argument.'