ITV News

An Early Evening News at 3.40 today, one would have thought with current developments it would broadcast following the James Bond film, just before 6.

I'm sure following the latest developments from the US there will be a bulletin, flash of some sorts.

I’m guessing they just swapped out the Six Nations and didn’t think about adjusting anything else.

BBC One managed a 25 minute news bulletin at 10pm, ITV just 13 minutes - although afterwards they did manage back-to-back sponsored national & local weather forecasts which were different. Who should I trust about the predicted temperature in Plymouth tonight, Heinz Beanz or GWR?

I was rather surprised to see ITV's programme preceded by a commercial for "P&O Ferries Spring Offers". I suspect that wasn't money well spent.

Well we should expect more from the BBC since we pay for it.

Oh dear, you think commercial companies broadcast for purely altruistic reasons, and you're not paying through an element of the price of products/services they advertise?


You have a disturbingly naive understanding of broadcast media funding.

Anyone who buys products advertised on ITV is funding ITV... We pay for commercial TV too - just in a more indirect way. (We also pay for product advertising on channels we don't necessarily subscribe to...)

True, but we also pay -- in whole or in part -- for websites, newspapers, magazines, commercial radio, etc. This doesn't change that fact that publicly supported media such as the BBC are (justifiably) held to a different standard of public accountability because of their special legal position within the media market -- or just outside the media "market," as the case may be.

Your premise that the BBC should be "justifiably held to account" more than any other PSB is not well made.


You either have permission to broadcast as a PSB or you don't; the funding stream is largely irrelevant to that legal requirement to provide a standard of service acceptable to Ofcom. Lower standards apply to non-PSBs, but they are still regulated to an extent.

There are legitimate alternatives to accessing media without a TVL, and an increasing number of people use that route, so the tired old argument that "I have to pay for the BBC, but I don't watch it" has become somewhat redundant.

If people have a fundamental objection to the BBC, they are not forced to fund it. They can watch programmes free of charge from commercial FTA 'catch-up' services, or pay for Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.

As an analogy: my next door neighbour chooses not to have a car, so pays no Road Tax, as he catches the bus travelling on the same roads. I don't insist on a "better quality of road" for my car, or complain about his choice not to pay Road Tax for his non-existent vehicle. Similarly, he doesn't complain about me paying for something I choose to have.

Lunchtime News from the national desk instead of the coffee table this afternoon presumably for a newsier feel. Unsure if London will come from the coffee table.

It was the same yesterday as well.

Not wishing to open a can of worms, but we really could be doing with the calm authority of Alastair Stewart in these times, on air and in wider society.