APPENDIX 4
Letter from Sir George Russell to the
Chairman of the Committee
Thank you very much for inviting me to attend
the very important hearing of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee
about News at Ten.
Given the arguments about the ITV companies
and the difficult situation facing the ITN management you were
right in insisting that a different view be presented. Thank you
for giving me the opportunity to put it forward.
In short, I suppose that the dilemma is one
of structure, which has caused loss of rating with the programme
quality generally not good enough to compensate, so scheduling
becomes the fallback. As you are aware, I have grave doubts that
this is the solution to their problems. More money, such as Sky
threw at Premier League football, making better quality programmes,
is almost certainly the answer.
23 October 1998
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