It was only a matter of when not if this would happen. Just suprised it hasn't happened by now.
The only difference i could see would be obviously the way which would be an Hour of Scotland Today and The ITV Evening News down south. Mind you possibly a contreversial plan of a change of news name lined up as well.
the repetition and speculation that itv regional news makes is not commercialy viable is wrong and only helps those in ITV who want to justify the cuts. Please be carefull about allowing it to be repeated as fact unchallanged - if you belive it, then by all means post it - but if you dont grasp the ecomonics involved than dont do itv dirty work; enough lazy newspaper journalists have done that.
ITV has priority spectrum (reserved bandwidth to broadcast on freeview) and priority EPG on all platforms. The value of this gift from Ofcom is thought to be between £50-£125M per year to the overall ITV broadcast business (depending which economic model/anaylist you read)
All the ITV news shows combined only cost three times the price of a 'normal' network prime show; while overall performing better than ITV average in the 6PM slot for share/impacts.
Yes, the regional shows still cost to much per edition - unimaginative working practises and lack of leadership skills are the cause - and they could all do better creativly and editorially.
You only need to vist an some ITV centres to see skilled staff with massive potential sat around bored, directionless and demotivated; under the leadership of news editors, producers and managers who really don't have a clue.
The irony of the Grade plan is it is the exact opposite of what the public want: they would like more LOCAL news nor more regional/pan regional news. Ofcom research is very clear on this (all on their site)
I'm sort of confused why ITV
only
have to do regional news by law
until the digital switchover
? What difference does that make?
Could somebody explain please?
I think that a lot of the legislation currently applies to ITV1 analogue output only (which as ITV1 is simulcast on digital means digital also complies)
However once analogue switch off has happened a lot of the analogue legislation will cease to apply. Also everyone will have access to at least one 24 hour news channel - so there will be arguments about any form of news legislation for ITV1 I suspect - not just regional. (Though news can rate well - as the BBC demonstrate - so it could still be worth doing)
There are few logical reasons for analogue and digital having different legislation for regional news - though ITVs regional news is expensive to produce (each bulletin might be cheap but multiply the cost per hour by 17 or 9 for the total cost of the slot and it begins to look expensive) and not rating that well nationally (so hardly an ad revenue cash cow) With them having to compete with multi-channel and inevitably a reduced audience share (and thus reduced ad revenue) they may be lobbying for a reduction in quotas to remain profitable...
They will still be in a privileged position post-switchover.
I find it utterly unacceptable that any company can be placed in such a position and yet simultaneously be allowed to forget about the commitments that led to it being there in the first place.
Frankly what is good for ITV financially is an irrelevance. If they wish to only be subject to the same requirements as Sky 1, then they should be given only the same rights to the airwaves as Sky 1.
Then when they come crying about losing their status, we can discuss what *they* are going to do about it.
Frankly what is good for ITV financially is an irrelevance. If they wish to only be subject to the same requirements as Sky 1, then they should be given only the same rights to the airwaves as Sky 1.
Then when they come crying about losing their status, we can discuss what *they* are going to do about it.
..
There are few logical reasons for analogue and digital having different legislation for regional news - though ITVs regional news is expensive to produce (each bulletin might be cheap but multiply the cost per hour by 17 or 9 for the total cost of the slot and it begins to look expensive) and not rating that well nationally (so hardly an ad revenue cash cow) With them having to compete with multi-channel and inevitably a reduced audience share (and thus reduced ad revenue) they may be lobbying for a reduction in quotas to remain profitable...
ITV spend around £85M a year on regional news at the moment.
Alocating all the cost to just the weekday 6PM show; Thats £19,250 per day (for each of the 17 editions) or £320,000 for the lot - in network TV terms thats not a lot.
In reality the GMTV, Morning, Lunch & Lates + Weekend service bring the 6-6:30PM cost down to £250,000 ish.
The ecomonic argument is NOT about the ratings and ad revenue for the show, but the overall value worth to the business.
The publc DO want local news and they want more than the just the BBC (trust in BBC news is at an all time low..for another topic..)
They will still be in a privileged position post-switchover.
I find it utterly unacceptable that any company can be placed in such a position and yet simultaneously be allowed to forget about the commitments that led to it being there in the first place.
Frankly what is good for ITV financially is an irrelevance. If they wish to only be subject to the same requirements as Sky 1, then they should be given only the same rights to the airwaves as Sky 1.
Then when they come crying about losing their status, we can discuss what *they* are going to do about it.
Exactly - the law should be updated accordingly, not forgotten about. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest regional TV news would be less important after DSO.
Fair enough if ITV still had the News Channel and wanted to shift it there, at least they'd still be providing the service - but as things stand ITV's historical position has given them massive advantages at DSO, and their responsibilities should also be carried through.
And if not, OFCOM shouldn't be selling off every spare bit of spectrum it can find - it should be offering space for dedicated regional services, sold at regional level. The space to be sold could be used for regional channels, but small local companies would have to compete against major international companies on a national level for it.
Maybe competition is the true answer here - and using DSO as an opportunity to offer a new network of regional broadcasters would be just the thing necessary to remind ITV of it's roots.
Maybe competition is the true answer here - and using DSO as an opportunity to offer a new network of regional broadcasters would be just the thing necessary to remind ITV of it's roots.
Regional broadcasting hasn't taken off sadly because it doesn't pay. With Sky the capacity is there, and if ITV was still split 15 ways we might have seen the local stations set up their own dedicated channels showing nothing but local or exclusive output.
Westcountry promised so much in terms of sub-local TV when they started but it never happened. Oh the irony - the technology is more than there now but the broadcasters don't want to know.
