ITV don't show any ads at all during non-news regional programmes, then they complain about how commercially unviable they are(!) There's no reason for there not to be, it's just cutting of their nose to spite their face.
That's not true, all of the post 2300 slots have ad breaks. It's the ones during peak that don't, as Londoner says because they are saved up for the big network shows.
while that's fair enough . . . the point is that figure you give of 3 million people watching ITV local news at 6pm, means that there are 3 million people watching 17 different programmes. Surely it makes better sense commercially - i.e. for advertisers to reach a larger audience and therefore pay more to a larger regional service - to have those 3 million split into fewer regional audiences.
Not if those cutbacks lead to lower audience figures.
If you dissect the results, the programmes that deal with smaller, more well-defined regions get the highest audience figures. Those with woolly, indistinct and large patches struggle.
ITV is proposing to make all its patches into the latter.
So, while they may cost less to make, they'll get fewer viewers.
At present, 3 million viewers for £325,000 is a very good return. Spending £2m an hour and getting 5 million viewers in prime-time is absolutely routing (for an hour's viewing). And given that this service lends some justification for ITV continuing to be granted a privileged position, they'd be well advised to keep it running.
I can absolutely guarantee that if the PSB requirement was to be wiped out on ITV, that Sky and others would successfully lobby for ITV to lose its mux on Freeview, and its position on the EPG. If ITV lose these, they will be torn apart by far more efficient operations post-DSO.
If you actually look into this, you'll realise that it would be utter commercial suicide for ITV to get rid of its PSB requirement.
That ITV don't see this, shows the company's continuing arrogance and stupidity. In that environment, I really hope they do fail -- we don't need badly run companies sapping the airwaves.
The argument being used about the 'non-profitability' of ITV regional news is exactly the same one as they used a few years ago about non-news programmes.
Starve it of resources, put everyone in a dreadful set, lose the regional identity (continuity announcements etc)...and, hey presto, the audience goes down, and it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
ITV is NOT a company on its knees, it makes huge profits every year...and its regional identity is, to quote Micahel Grade, its lifeblood. Ho ho.
Well, goodbye ITV regional news. Presumably they've now just written off the 6-7 slot, hoping everyone will hit the remote at 7 and come back to watch Emmerdale.
There's another little side-issue here, that I've not noticed being mentioned as yet.
If they reduce the "main" regions to nine, then they'll also, presumably, reduce the number of sub-regions within those.
Assuming they also stop selling advertising separately for the "lost" sub-regions, then they'll be able to save a couple of quid on a load of Astra transponder space.
Starve it of resources, put everyone in a dreadful set, lose the regional identity (continuity announcements etc)...and, hey presto, the audience goes down, and it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
No-one watches the regional news just because of th 5 second anno at the beginning and I doubt many people stop watching because of the set (even though the current one is quite nice I think). They're doing badly because of content
ITV don't show any ads at all during non-news regional programmes, then they complain about how commercially unviable they are(!) There's no reason for there not to be, it's just cutting of their nose to spite their face.
Because it makes mroe sense to put adverts on in the middle of The Bill when there's a bigger audience rather than during the regional programme which is up against Eastenders
Nobody cares about regional news anymore. Only the staff in the regional stations will be affected by this decision. So anyone that is get hot and bothered by the cut backs should look at it objectively.
The NUJ is now proposing strike action in favour of the cuts.
I've a feeling that they are actually against the cuts.
Why is it in some other countries, such as the US, the local news is among the most popular programmes, whereas here it is an after thought.
One issue if ITV reduces substantially its commitment, after analogue switch-off, most of the multiplexes will effectively be national. Perhaps it will be an impetus to the ITC to allow some of the bandwidth gained on analogue switch-off to go to local channels.
It has always seemed to me that one of the issues with regional TV news in the UK is that, inevitably in a small country I guess, that the regional map was defined by the transmitter network and isn't sensible in many cases.
It has always seemed to me that one of the issues with regional TV news in the UK is that, inevitably in a small country I guess, that the regional map was defined by the transmitter network and isn't sensible in many cases.
How ironic it is that now the technology is more than in place for truly regional television (Sky Digital etc) the exact opposite is happening. If ITV had gone the opposite way the 15 regional companies could have set up their own digital channels showing nothing but local output and news, while outside companies had the opportunity to set up channels specific to a particular region.
There have been some moves towards localised TV services, but at the end of the day it all boils down to money and no-one wants to touch regional telly because it doesn't pay. It doesn't help that Sky is controlled by Rupert Murdoch whose free market ideals are hampering the development of public service broadcasting.
But any adverts would make them SOME money, surely?
Yes, but they are limited to the amount of advertising time they can have. So if they put 2 minutes of cheap adverts on during a regional programme they'll have to lose 2 minutes of adrtising from elsewhre in the schedule
