WI
An article from 'The Scotsman.'
The BBC’s mainstream current affairs output lacks impact and is overshadowed by ITV rival Tonight With Trevor McDonald, according to a review commissioned by the Corporation’s own board of governors.
Current affairs has been “ghettoised” at the BBC over the past few years.
BBC1’s Real Story, presented by Fiona Bruce, has failed to make an impression with viewers, the review concluded.
By contrast, the review heaped praise on ITV rival Tonight With Trevor McDonald.
The report, prepared by the BBC Governance Unit on behalf of the Governors, canvassed focus groups, BBC executives and a panel of experts on the state of BBC current affairs.
“The BBC is serving committed viewers quite well, and audiences to its regular strands are steady. However, most are shown off-peak on BBC1 or on BBC2, so do not reach a mainstream audience. Despite this, they regularly have a huge impact on the areas they report on,” the review said.
“The lack of a regular, high profile peaktime offering on BBC1 means that the BBC is serving the mainstream less well.
“Our research suggests that Real Story is not fulfilling this role adequately.
“In searching for a reason for current affairs’ lack of mainstream impact, there is some evidence that current affairs was ‘ghettoised’ at the BBC in the late 1990s and that, as a result, it has resisted the forces of innovation which have swept other serious factual genres such as science and history.”
ITV was praised for doubling the output of Tonight With Trevor McDonald and the review said McDonald himself was a “particularly successful aspect of the programme.”
“ITV1 has made a firm commitment to Tonight With Trevor McDonald which is shown twice weekly in peaktime. The programme has very high awareness and viewers respond very positively to Trevor McDonald,” the review concluded.
It added: “Our qualitative research and expert panel discussion both showed that Real Story does not come close to Tonight With Trevor McDonald in terms of public awareness.”
As the review was being made public, the BBC was announcing plans to boost its current affairs coverage with an extra Ł3 million investment.
The amount of current affairs programming in peak time on BBC1 will increase by 28% to 48.5 hours per year, a record for the channel.
Real Story, presented by Fiona Bruce, will now cover a single subject in each programme rather than three and will be extended to 32 programmes per year..
Panorama will remain in its Sunday night slot but there will be eight mid-week Panorama specials per year.
But announcing the revamp, BBC director of television Jana Bennett took a swipe at the Tonight programme.
Describing a new raft of current affairs specials to be broadcast on Wednesday nights, Bennett said they would not be covering “Trevor-lite type topics”.
ITV hit back: “Tonight has a broad agenda and has focused on a wide range of issues in the past 12 months, including an expose into the potentially harmful toxins in breastmilk through to an investigation which uncovered a plot to recruit British citizens into ‘terror camps’ in Pakistan as well as programmes on domestic violence, MRSA, and the Sudan massacres – these issues by anyone’s standards couldn’t be considered ’lite’.
“ITV has an ongoing and serious commitment to current affairs in prime time which is reflected by the fact that there are 90 episodes of Tonight which will play in peak this year, including a number of special programmes.
“We’re pleased to hear that the BBC is attempting to play catch-up in a genre which is dominated by ITV – Tonight has won the RTS Journalism Award for Programme of the Year in three years out of five and routinely makes the headlines rather than simply reporting them.”
It's a shame that Fiona's getting a roasting from the BBC Governers. I like 'Real Story', Fiona is very good at presenting it.
The BBC’s mainstream current affairs output lacks impact and is overshadowed by ITV rival Tonight With Trevor McDonald, according to a review commissioned by the Corporation’s own board of governors.
Current affairs has been “ghettoised” at the BBC over the past few years.
BBC1’s Real Story, presented by Fiona Bruce, has failed to make an impression with viewers, the review concluded.
By contrast, the review heaped praise on ITV rival Tonight With Trevor McDonald.
The report, prepared by the BBC Governance Unit on behalf of the Governors, canvassed focus groups, BBC executives and a panel of experts on the state of BBC current affairs.
“The BBC is serving committed viewers quite well, and audiences to its regular strands are steady. However, most are shown off-peak on BBC1 or on BBC2, so do not reach a mainstream audience. Despite this, they regularly have a huge impact on the areas they report on,” the review said.
“The lack of a regular, high profile peaktime offering on BBC1 means that the BBC is serving the mainstream less well.
“Our research suggests that Real Story is not fulfilling this role adequately.
“In searching for a reason for current affairs’ lack of mainstream impact, there is some evidence that current affairs was ‘ghettoised’ at the BBC in the late 1990s and that, as a result, it has resisted the forces of innovation which have swept other serious factual genres such as science and history.”
ITV was praised for doubling the output of Tonight With Trevor McDonald and the review said McDonald himself was a “particularly successful aspect of the programme.”
“ITV1 has made a firm commitment to Tonight With Trevor McDonald which is shown twice weekly in peaktime. The programme has very high awareness and viewers respond very positively to Trevor McDonald,” the review concluded.
It added: “Our qualitative research and expert panel discussion both showed that Real Story does not come close to Tonight With Trevor McDonald in terms of public awareness.”
As the review was being made public, the BBC was announcing plans to boost its current affairs coverage with an extra Ł3 million investment.
The amount of current affairs programming in peak time on BBC1 will increase by 28% to 48.5 hours per year, a record for the channel.
Real Story, presented by Fiona Bruce, will now cover a single subject in each programme rather than three and will be extended to 32 programmes per year..
Panorama will remain in its Sunday night slot but there will be eight mid-week Panorama specials per year.
But announcing the revamp, BBC director of television Jana Bennett took a swipe at the Tonight programme.
Describing a new raft of current affairs specials to be broadcast on Wednesday nights, Bennett said they would not be covering “Trevor-lite type topics”.
ITV hit back: “Tonight has a broad agenda and has focused on a wide range of issues in the past 12 months, including an expose into the potentially harmful toxins in breastmilk through to an investigation which uncovered a plot to recruit British citizens into ‘terror camps’ in Pakistan as well as programmes on domestic violence, MRSA, and the Sudan massacres – these issues by anyone’s standards couldn’t be considered ’lite’.
“ITV has an ongoing and serious commitment to current affairs in prime time which is reflected by the fact that there are 90 episodes of Tonight which will play in peak this year, including a number of special programmes.
“We’re pleased to hear that the BBC is attempting to play catch-up in a genre which is dominated by ITV – Tonight has won the RTS Journalism Award for Programme of the Year in three years out of five and routinely makes the headlines rather than simply reporting them.”
It's a shame that Fiona's getting a roasting from the BBC Governers. I like 'Real Story', Fiona is very good at presenting it.
