Memorandum submitted by Independent Television
News (ITN)
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 ITN is grateful for this opportunity
to submit written evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Select
Committee inquiry: Whatever Happened to News at Ten? This
brief paper sets out key points relevant to the inquiry, including:
— ITN's public policy function.
— Competition for the "news audience"
and broadcast news services.
— Range and quality of ITV News (March
1999-March 2000).
1.2 The Committee will know that ITN is
a supplier of news programmes to ITV. As such, we have no locus
on the ITV schedule itself, which is determined by the ITV Network
and the individual ITV licensees, working within a regulatory
framework determined and enforced by the Independent Television
Commission (ITC). Whilst ITN is therefore unable to comment on
specific scheduling issues—including audience shares—we
hope that the points raised in this paper will prove useful to
the Committee during the course of its inquiry.
2. PLURALITY
IN BROADCAST
NEWS: ITN'S
PUBLIC POLICY
FUNCTION
2.1 ITN's primary public policy function
is to deliver plurality of voice in broadcast news, competing
with the BBC and with commercially funded national and international
news services for the UK news audience.
2.2 In the "traditional" broadcasting
world, ITN has competed for this news audience through the provision
of high-quality news programmes on the free-to-air terrestrial
networks—first ITV (1955), then Channel 4 (1981) and Channel
5 (1997). The importance of plurality and competition in broadcast
news is enshrined by the Independent Television Commission (ITC)
in its broadcast licences, which require all three commercially
funded free-to-air networks to deliver quality broadcast news
programmes in peak.
2.3 However, ITN's ability to compete vigorously
for the news audience has to keep pace with broader changes in
the consumption of news services. As the Rt Hon Peter Mandelson
MP said in his speech to the European Media Forum last July: "The
quality of our democracy will be the weaker without a strong ITN.
ITN is diversifying its business rather than accepting gentle
decline of the value of its core news contracts. This process
of diversification and expansion must accelerate if ITN is not
to be left behind by the BBC." ITN's long-term ability to
compete with its counterparts therefore relies as much on the
business' successful diversification and exploitation of new and
emerging platforms as it does on retaining audience share and
reach for its "own-label" news programmes on ITV, Channel
4 and Channel 5.
2.4 ITN is therefore rolling out an ambitious
programme of diversification. The "jewel in the crown"
of this strategy is our ambitious plans for a UK news channel—in
a joint venture with cable operator ntl—to compete head-on
with BBC News 24, CNN and Sky News. The channel will exploit Britain's
lead in broadcast technology by offering consumers the first genuinely
interactive national news channel across all key platforms. A
summary of ITN's existing and imminent business diversification
is outlined in Table 1 (below).
Table 1: ITN
DIVERSITY OF "NEWS VOICE" IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT
|
| Platform | ITN business activity
|
|
| Television | Own-label news programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
ITN-branded 24-hour news channel: platform neutral and genuinely interactive.
EuroNews: Operating control of the multi-lingual,
pan-European news broadcaster, distributed to
over 100 million households in 43 countries via
satellite, cable and terrestrial platforms.
ITN World News for Public Television: Broadcast
to over 50 per cent of US households.
Local and interactive news services for cable operators.
|
| Radio | Through Independent Radio News (IRN) to over
230 commercial radio stations.
Part ownership and direct editorial responsibility
for London News Radio, including News Direct
97.3 FM and LBC 1152 AM.
|
| Web-based news | UK top-ten rated website, www.itn.co.uk.
Supplying web-based news content to a wide
range of national and international website
customers.
Web-based news services on PalmPilot.
|
| Mobile telephony | First to provide online text content via WAP
enabled mobile phones in a deal with Orange.
|
| ADSL | Supplying news content via high-speed ADSL
Internet access, including Freeserve.
|
|
2.5 In this context, it is the "colonisation"
of new platforms by publicly funded BBC services which poses by
far the greatest threat to ITN's future "news voice".
For example, in a ground-breaking deal with Orange, ITN was the
first entrant into the web-based text news market on Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP) enabled second generation mobile telephones.
Two weeks later the BBC announced its own deal to provide text
news to Vodafone free of charge. ITN faces similar problems in
the market to provide news services for websites, local interactive
cable and ADSL services. In short, ITN's diversification and our
ability to compete for future news audiences across new and emerging
platforms is explicitly threatened by publicly funded BBC services
"crowding out" commercial competitors.
2.6 The continued importance of attracting large-volume
audiences to free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters therefore has
to be seen in a much longer term context of diversifying consumption
of news services, driven by digital, web-based and converging
technologies. ITN firmly believes that this new environment raises
considerably greater public policy issues than the relatively
parochial debate in the press about the scheduling of news on
the ITV Network would suggest.
3. THE ROLE
OF ITV
3.1 However, during the sunset period before analogue
switchover, the audience shares and reach of the "own label"
programmes produced for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 will remain
an important component of ITN's ability to compete for the UK
news audience.
3.2 ITV's continued ability to retain a substantial share
of the commercial television market (by audience volume, audience
share, share of advertising revenue and share of total commercial
television revenue) provides a particularly robust platform from
which ITN—as ITV's news supplier—can compete for the
mass news audience.
3.3 This role is specifically recognised in statute and
in the ITV companies' broadcast licences. In the 1996 Broadcasting
Act, ITV is required to provide "news programmes which are
able to compete effectively with other news programmes broadcast
nationwide in the UK". The ITC has translated this statutory
requirement in three ways. First, ITV must broadcast one flagship
news programme in "peak-time". Second, all of ITV's
national news programmes must be broadcast simultaneously across
the network. Third—and unlike any other commercial channel—ITV's
national and international news programmes must be supplied by
a Nominated News Provider, meeting tough quality and resource
thresholds.
3.4 ITN's only role in this public policy and regulatory
framework is to supply the ITV Network with high quality national
and international news programmes.
3.5 Under the terms of ITN's existing contract with the
ITV Network—and following changes to the ITV schedule in
March 1999—news programmes are produced by ITN and broadcast
across the ITV Network on weekdays at 05.30 hours, 12.30 hours,
18.30 hours and 23.00 hours. A headline service is produced and
broadcast each weekday morning and afternoon, and at 22.00 hours
each evening. ITN also produces a headline service and news programmes
across the ITV weekend schedule.
4. FUNDING, RANGE
AND QUALITY
OF ITV NEWS
4.1 As has already been made clear, ITN has no locus
over the ITV schedule and therefore is unable to comment on specific
aspects of the ITC Schedule Review or the Select Committee inquiry
into the scheduling of news programmes on ITV.
4.2 However, the ITC stated in the conditions for allowing
ITV to launch its new schedule that there must be "no diminution
in the funding, or in the range and quality of national and international
news". As ITV's Nominated News Provider, ITN is well qualified
to comment on the funding, quality and range of its news programmes
since the new schedule was launched in March 1999. As the following
analysis indicates, by this measure the new ITV Evening News
and ITV Nightly News have been extremely successful.
Funding and Resource
4.3 The foundation stone of providing a competitive news
service with reach and quality is—of course—resource.
And on all key measures, the new ITV News programmes are at least
as well resourced and—by most measures—better resourced
than their predecessors.
4.4 The exact financial terms of ITN's contract with
ITV remain confidential. But the contract is subject to an index
linked annual rise to keep pace with inflation. In a particularly
busy news year, ITV found additional funding for Kosovo coverage.
And the ITV companies, through the ITV Network, also made a one-off
payment to ITN for the launch of the "new look" ITV
News.
4.5 The resource for the ITV News includes:
— UK Bureaux: Westminster, Edinburgh, Cardiff,
Belfast, Birmingham and Southampton.
— International Bureaux: in Brussels, Paris,
Washington, Moscow, Hong Kong and Jerusalem, enabling ITN to report
quickly from anywhere in the world.
— Dedicated Newsroom: More than 140 journalists,
directors, producers and technicians. There has been no diminution
in staffing levels since the launch of the new schedule.
— Core News: Access to ITN's "core news"
operation, which includes 11 satellite uplink units, 12 operational
video journalists and around 70 technicians and other support
staff.
In short, ITV News is very well resourced. There has been
absolutely no diminution in the funding of the service since the
launch of ITV's new schedule in March 1999.
Authority and Accessibility
4.6 ITN strives to produce news programmes for ITV that
are authoritative and accessible: qualities that are essential
in attracting large news audiences. By every key measure, ITV
News achieves this difficult editorial balance:
— Presenters: ITV News can now boast the
broadest and most authoritative range of dedicated news presenters
in British broadcast news. Headed by Sir Trevor McDonald, who
continues to present the ITV flagship bulletin and remains Britain's
most popular newscaster, the team also includes Dermot Murnaghan,
who presents the ITV Nightly News, Kirsty Young and John Suchet
who co-present the ITV lunchtime news, together with Katie Derham,
Nicholas Owen and Mark Austin.
— Correspondents and Reporters: After a tremendous
30-year contribution to serious broadcast journalism on ITN, Mike
Brunson is to retire in March 2000. John Sergeant, who joins ITV
News from the BBC, will replace him. John Sergeant's recruitment
personifies ITN's continued commitment to serious political journalism
on ITV News. He joins a 40-strong team of correspondents and reporters
delivering first class journalism to ITV News viewers.
— Awards: The quality of their journalism
is reflected in the number of awards won by ITV News since the
launch of the new schedule. Of the most notable, Julian Manyon
was the only British journalist to win Gold Medal at the prestigious
New York International Television Programming Awards. And Mark
Austin and Bill Neely have just won the Gold Nymph for News Coverage
at the prestigious Television Festival of Monte Carlo, Europe's
top news award. Both awards were for ITN coverage from Kosovo,
which had been underpinned by additional funding from the ITV
Network.
— Public Opinion: After only six months in
its new schedule slot at 18.30 hours, an NOP survey revealed that
the ITV Evening News had already established itself as
Britain's most popular news programme. This popularity has since
translated into robust viewing figures for the programme.
Balance of Reporting
4.7 ITN believes that a competitive news service relies
on achieving a sensible balance of coverage between the full range
of news events. Qualitative and quantitative research commissioned
by ITN reveals that this balance was maintained after the launch
of the new news programmes:
— Domestic vs Foreign: Between March and
November 1999 65 per cent of news stories on the ITV Evening
News were domestic and 35 per cent foreign. In 1998, the ratio
of domestic to foreign stories on News at Ten—over
the same period—was almost identical at 66 per cent to 34
per cent.
— Domestic Political Coverage: The balance
of stories covered in domestic news has shifted, with an in domestic
political coverage from 9 per cent to 16 per cent, reflecting
a busy year in British politics.
This analysis reveals ITN's unflagging commitment to foreign
stories and balanced political coverage on ITV News. The past
year has seen a number of critically important foreign and domestic
events, all of which ITN has reported in full. In addition to
the excellent coverage of Kosovo, ITV News reported in depth on
the Turkish earthquake, the Paddington rail crash, East Timor,
the Northern Ireland peace process, the Scottish and Welsh elections,
the Shipman murder case and Chechnya, to name but a few.
Agility
4.8 ITN's ability to respond quickly to breaking news
at any time of day is another critical measure of competition
in broadcast news. During the public consultation about the abolition
of News at Ten, parliamentarians and commentators expressed
grave concern about the loss of the "breaking news"
service, particularly with regard to late night votes in Parliament.
However, the editorial agility of the ITV Nightly News
in particular has helped re-establish ITN's strong reputation
in this area, as the following case studies illustrate:
— One of the year's most significant political upsets
was the result of the Commons defeat on the Disability Bill. This
broke on the ITV Nightly News.
— Confirmation of Cherie Blair's pregnancy reached
the media late, but in time for the ITV Nightly News to
carry the first report.
— The selection of Stephen Norris as the Conservative
London mayoral candidate broke on the programme. Confirmation
that Ken Livingstone was on the Labour shortlist was first covered
on the ITV Nightly News.
— The ITV Nightly News was the first bulletin
to report on revelations about Michael Portillo. ITN was able
to break the story as events unfolded with Michael Brunson securing
Mr Portillo's first broadcast news interview.
4.9 The ITV Nightly News is also well placed to
report on stories from the United States, exploiting ITN's resource
in Washington to the full. US stories covered on the programme
have included reports on the shooting at Columbine High School
in Colorado, Hillary Clinton's announcement that she will run
for a seat in the Senate and early reports of the AOL-Time Warner
merger.
5. CONCLUSION
5.1 ITN has absolutely no doubt about the quality of
the ITV Evening News and ITV Nightly News, together
with the other programmes and bulletins produced for the ITV Network.
By all key measures—resource and funding, editorial balance,
accessibility, agility and the professionalism of the presenters,
editors and correspondents working in the ITV newsroom—ITN
delivers a first-class product to the ITV news audience.
5.2 The audiences that these programmes attract are predominantly
a factor of scheduling, over which ITN has no locus. The ITV Network
has already prepared detailed analysis on this subject, which
it intends to share with the Committee. ITN confines itself to
observing that the ITV Evening News now regularly attracts a larger
news audience than its immediate competitor—the BBC six
o'clock News. Moreover, in less than one year the ITV Nightly
News has carved out a news audience of between three and four
million, where previously there were no news viewers at all. The
robust performance of both programmes is a testament to the people
that work on them.
5.3 In the meantime, ITN has continued an ambitious programme
of diversification to exploit all the opportunities offered up
by developments in digital broadcasting and the emergence of new
platforms. Our ability to maintain plurality of "news voice"—ITN's
key public policy function—is as much dependent on the successful
execution of this strategy as it is on the audience share and
audience reach of ITV News, Channel Four News or 5 News. It is
our hope that the Committee will find time to investigate the
public policy issues related to fair competition on these new
platforms, so that ITN has the best possible chance to deliver
competition for news audiences in the digital environment.
February 2000
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