It makes sense to cut down in areas where they can't fully compete, and Channel 5 are not the only broadcaster to cut how much they spend on news. Currently 5 News at 7 is regularly the lowest rating part of the entire schedule, even achieving lower audience shares than the overnight gambling at under 1% of the available audience, putting them behind many digital channels during that timeslot. And that's in early primetime, which clearly presents huge problems for them commercially as it gets them off to the worst possible start each evening. There is clearly next to no demand for it, least not just a couple of hours after a near identical bulletin, but for reasons unbeknownst to me Ofcom stipulate it must continue. And whilst the 5pm bulletin does well, it's guaranteed a decent audience of sorts, cushioned in between the afternoon movie and Neighbours. Viewers are not tuning in for high quality reports per se, particularly those concerning international issues- why would they when this is already available in more obvious places- but for the adequate summary of the day's news and entertainment stories it provides in between other shows.
I think these cutbacks, which may appear brutal on the surface, are just about good old fashioned realism. No matter how much they spend on it, it will never be able to compete with what the BBC, ITV and Sky are providing. And nobody expects it to. So if they can provide a reasonable level of service at a much lesser cost, why not? Whether that's truly possible or not remains to be seen I would suggest, but using studio space within their own facilities is one very easy way to make it more economical without having a major impact on the quality of the programme.
I'm willing to bet half of the people turning their noses up and expressing faux concern are not 5 News viewers in the first place, and it is after all only their views that count. As someone who watches 5 News quite regularly before Neighbours, I wouldn't say the current standard is all that great, but it does the job reasonably well and it certainly has its moments. I can't imagine I'd be any less likely to watch before Neighbours when these changes are brought in.
A few further points to add:
1) The signs are that if anything the cross-promotion of Desmond's "trashy brands" is on the decline. OK! TV, the biggest example we've seen, will bow out in 10 days time after less than 12 months on the air.
2) Negotiations to sell air time of the sister channels happened under RTL as well. It's not a new development, although there may have been an increase.
3) The rival newspaper neglects to consider any remotely positive aspects of C5 under Desmond's tenure, such as the retainment of the children's strand Milkshake! which they are under no obligation to provide.
4) Clearly Desmond is a bit of a character to say the least but I think it's pretty obvious a lot of the stuff he comes out with is made in jest. Nobody
really
took the whole Panorama thing seriously, did they?
Last edited by Lost The Remote on 6 December 2011 11:28pm - 2 times in total
