Memorandum by Ofcom
INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS
Television news is still by far the main source
of news for most people. The proportion of people looking first
to television news has remained unchanged over the last five years
at roughly two-thirds, despite the rapid growth in other forms
of news distribution. Internet news consumption has grown fast,
but only to 6%. The evidence suggests that at the moment the internet
is a supplementary rather than main source of news.
Ofcom has recently published a report into the
future context for television news, ahead of embarking on its
second Public Service Television Review. In doing so, we sought
to address the prospects for the traditional model of competition
and plurality in television news. Our initial view is that there
are good reasons to believe that existing commercial channels
with public service obligations will continue to deliver UK national
and international news.
This should ensure that there remains a plurality
of supply, through the BBC, ITN and Sky, who provide news to the
main PSB channels—and in the case of BBC News 24 and Sky
News—to provide their own dedicated news channels as well.
Indeed, beyond the PSBs, there are more sources of audio-visual
news available than ever before, supplementing the diversity of
agendas and viewpoints. However, even within this growing diversity
of supply, it remains the case that the main news outlets account
for the lion's share of actual consumption. As shown in figure
4 below, television remains the dominant medium for news, and
99.4% of TV news viewing is to the BBC, ITN or Sky.
Television news supplied in and for the nations
and regions of the UK faces more direct and immediate challenges.
However appreciated these services are by viewers, the fact remains
that the costs for ITV of producing 27 separate and simultaneous
programmes are heavy. It seems quite possible that a different
approach will be required if these programmes are to be delivered
by commercial broadcasters after switch-over.
There are also questions for the future about
levels of engagement in parts of the audience for television news,
particularly the young and some minority ethnic groups, where
research suggests that rising numbers see television news as something
they only use reactively—when something interesting or important
is happening—rather than as part of their regular viewing.
RESPONSE TO
QUESTIONS POSED
BY THE
COMMITTEE
Question 1. How and why have the agendas of
news providers changed? How has the content of news programmes
and newspapers altered over the years?
Television
1. Ofcom conducted detailed analysis of
the content of television news bulletins as part of research for
New News, Future News, a discussion document published
in July 2007 examining the prospects for news after digital switch-over
(DSO). Ofcom has not conducted any analysis of newspaper content.
2. The TV analysis looked at the main network
news programmes on BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4, and Five; and at
news programmes for the UK nations and regions on BBC One and
ITV1. The research was conducted in autumn 2006, and was compared
to similar research carried out in 2002 in the case of network
news; and with 2004 for the UK nations and regions.
3. The overall conclusion was that agendas
and content had changed little in substance over the last five
years, although there were some changes in presentational style.
These have included an increased use of "live" correspondents
to provide story analysis, and a tendency for news presenters
to stand in front of a "video wall", rather than behind
a desk. The changes are in part a response to changes in technology,
but also reflect a fashion for a slightly more informal delivery.
4. However, the agenda itself remains predominantly
"hard news" on all the PSB channels, with both home
and overseas stories being covered in depth each day, and with
reporters on location and frequently "live". In fact,
research suggests there are more political and international stories
than in 2002, and less "soft news". Public perceptions
that agendas have become less weighty may be linked to style rather
than actual subject matter.
5. Fig 1 below shows a breakdown of lead
stories by channel for the comparative periods of 2002 and 2006.
This was based on two periods where no one story dominated the
agenda. The priority given to UK politics has increased on every
bulletin—especially on the most-watched bulletin—the
BBC Ten O'Clock. There has been some decline in international
coverage on BBC One, but an increase on ITV and a consistently
high level on Channel 4.
6. Hard news has also remained the core
of regions/nations news programmes on both ITV and the BBC (see
Fig 2), with three hard stories to every soft feature on average
across the UK. News agendas in the nations were particularly hard
edged, with an average of just one-and-a-half soft stories per
programme.
7. Within the overall hard news agenda,
softer features did, however, have an established place within
regions/nations news—particularly in the English regions—and
seemed to play an important role in representing what was distinct
or particular to an individual region.
8. Some overall differences of style and
approach were discernible between the regions/nations broadcasters.
The evidence suggests that ITV services pursue a more populist
agenda and feature a higher proportion of human interest stories;
while the BBC takes a more formal approach to the structure and
tone of its reports and covers a greater proportion of public
policy stories.
9. Nations/regions news services made significantly
more use of viewer interactivity, in the form of emails and viewers'
photographs, than they did two years ago.
Radio
10. Commercial radio news agendas, focusing
on local content, have changed little over the years. When licences
are bought and sold the format of the station usually travels
unchanged to the new owner as part of the licence. Therefore the
news remit remains the same.
11. The balance between "soft"
and "hard" news has, however, swung towards softer news,
exposing a clear correlation with pressures on revenue and subsequent
reduction in news staff at individual radio stations.
12. Advertising targets the younger section
with much more vigour than the older demographic, and this has
resulted in entertainment news being more to the fore than in
the early years of commercial radio (mid-seventies to the mid-eighties).
13. The Future of Radio consultation published
in April 2007 set out the challenges for revenue faced by commercial
radio, particularly from new media, and recognised it has lost
audience to the BBC. Both factors have helped shape the direction
of radio news.
14. The Future of Radio stated, with regard
to revenue factors that:
— commercial radio industry in
the UK is small, relative to other media industries ie commercial
television revenues are 14 times the size of radio's;
— rapid growth in radio advertising
revenues before 2000 has given way to a decline in revenues and
a stagnant or declining share of the overall advertising market.
Commercial radio revenues fell by 5.2% overall year-on-year to
Q4 2006; local revenues fell by 8.6%, national revenues by 7.2%.
Commercial radio's share of total display advertising fell to
6.1%—its lowest since 2000.
Question 2. How is the way that people access
the news changing? The Committee is interested in national and
regional trends and figures for television, radio, newspaper and
online news consumption
Television
15. Television—particularly PSB television—is
by some margin the main source of news for the majority of UK
consumers. There has been no sign of any decline in the importance
of television, relative to other news providers, since similar
analysis was conducted in 2002. Among the TV providers, the BBC
takes more than 50% of the television news audience (see Fig 3);
and ITV1 more than half of the remaining audience, despite a decline
in ITV1 viewership since 2002.
16. Two thirds of viewers cite TV as their
main source (see Fig 4)—exactly the same as in 2002. The
internet has increased by a factor of three, but only to 6%. Radio
has declined by a third.
17. It is a similar story for what sources
of news are ever used by consumers (see Fig 5). The internet is
now more significant as an additional source of news to traditional
forms such as television, newspapers and radio.
18. Viewing of UK news on the main networks
is down 12% since 2001—though that is partly because viewing
to news in 2001 was boosted by 9/11. The long term trend is a
slow decline of around 1.5% a year, but viewers on average still
watch around 90 hours a year—15 minutes every day. Fig 6
shows how each channel has been affected.
19. There has been little change in the
use of 24 hour rolling news channels in the last five years. Their
share of news viewing has remained constant at around 10%.
Hours per individual (4+ years old)
Source: BARB
Note: 24-hour channel viewing is for
BBC News 24, Sky News and ITV News channel (up to its closure
in 2005) combined; viewing is averaged across all TV households.
20. There are differences in the ways news
about UK nations/regions/localities is consumed within the UK
(see Fig 7). Newspapers are more important for more local news
than for UK news, particularly in Scotland.
21. There is consumer research evidence
that the young (16-24) and members of some ethnic minorities are
increasingly disengaged from mainstream news. Since 2002 the proportion
of 16-24s who feel it is important to keep up with the news has
fallen from 89% to 81% (see Fig 8). One half of 16-24s say they
now only follow the news when something interesting or important
is happening—up from a third five years ago—and two
thirds state that much of the news on TV is not relevant to them
personally, up from 44%.
Radio
22. Radio has retained its audience over
the past five years, despite the ever-increasing array of alternative
media choices, such as multi-channel television and the internet
(see Fig 9). However, the analysis does not differentiate between
radio news and other programmes on radio. Weekly reach of radio
services remained stable, at around 90%, while total hours of
listening in the UK had declined very marginally, from 4.7 million
hours in 2001 to 4.6 hours in 2005.
23. Within this total, the share of hours
taken up by BBC services has increased from around 52% in 2001
to 54% in 2006 while commercial share of listening has seen a
corresponding decline. Local commercial radio was particularly
affected by this trend, with a six percentage point drop over
the period.
24. Figures for flagship radio news programmes
over the past five years indicate a similar lack of change in
share, reach and average listening. These programmes remain more
appealing to older audiences, while reach among 16-24 year olds
remains marginal.
25. Fig 10 uses the example of BBC Radio
4's Today programme. Weekly reach during the Mon-Fri 0630—0900
slot remained at around 14% over the last five years showing a
very slight downward trend over the past two years.
26. Ofcom research conducted in the autumn
of 2006 showed that when people use the internet for news, most
of them say they read text (see Fig 11). News "blogs",
for example, are accessed by only one internet news user in 20.
Broadband is now in half of households. But only one in five internet
news users say they watch video news clips.
Question 3. How has the process of news gathering
changed? The Committee is interested in the process of news production,
the prioritisation of budgets and the deployment of journalistic
resources
27. Ofcom believes these questions are best
answered by news providers themselves.
Question 4 and 5. What is the impact of the
concentration of media ownership on the balance and diversity
of opinion seen in the news? Does ownership have an impact on
editorial priorities and on news values such as fairness, accuracy
and impartiality?
How should the public interest be protected and
defined in terms of news provision? Are the public interest considerations
set down for Ofcom in the Communications Act 2003 enough to ensure
a plurality of debating voices in the UK news media?
28. Section 391 of the Communications Act
2003 requires Ofcom to review the media ownership rules (including
the media public interest test provisions inserted by the 2003
Act into the Enterprise Act 2002) at least every three years and,
as a result of that review, make recommendations to the Secretary
of State if in Ofcom's view changes to the rules are needed. Ofcom's
first review of the rules in November 2006 found that the media
public interest test provisions remained relevant and proposed
no changes to the regime.
29. In February 2007, the Secretary of State
used the media public interest test provisions for the first time
in the context of Sky's acquisition of 17.9% of the shares in
ITV, requiring the OFT to prepare a report on competition issues
and Ofcom to prepare a report on issues concerned with sufficiency
of plurality. Ofcom's report advised that in this case there were
plurality concerns as a result of the ownership link involved
in this transaction and recommended that there be a further investigation
by the Competition Commission. A copy of Ofcom's report to the
Secretary of State is attached.[11]
The Secretary of State subsequently referred the acquisition to
the Competition Commission which is currently investigating matters
around competition and plurality.[12]
30. When considering the question of whether
ownership has an impact on editorial priorities and on news values
such as fairness, accuracy and impartiality, there are important
distinctions to be drawn between commercially owned newspapers
and television news channels.
Commercially owned newspapers are, self-evidently,
free to pursue editorial agendas of their own choosing. In some
cases, such agendas explicitly reflect the views of their owners.
Broadcasters of television news must comply
with the impartiality provisions of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code
(the "Code") which require that news is reported with
due accuracy and presented with due impartiality. Special rules
apply in respect of General Elections. The Code also contains
fairness and privacy rules designed to prevent the abusive treatment
of any individual or organisation. In addition, the Channel 3,
Channel 4 and Channel 5 licences include provisions requiring
that news programming provided on these services are of high quality
and deal with both national and international matters.
31. However, Parliament, in, placing limitations
on cross-ownership of national newspapers and ITV through the
Communications Act, recognised that these code based provision
might not necessarily address issues of news priorities and agenda.
This is because they are not directly concerned with, nor do they
provide a substitute for, sufficient plurality. They are designed
to protect the accuracy and impartiality of treatment of individual
stories rather than to constrain the ability of broadcasters to
set their own news agendas. As set out in Ofcom's evidence to
the Secretary of State and more fully in Ofcom's report to the
Competition Commission,[13]
there is therefore a risk that a shareholder, with an interest
that was controlling or otherwise, could seek to influence editorial
decisions in television and radio news through a variety of direct
or indirect means.
32. In the case of the BBC, the BBC Trust
has recently published a report examining the extent to which
BBC news and other programmes might be subject to some form of
bias or partiality, arising from the BBC's history, culture and
governance.[14]
CONCLUDING REMARKS
News, Media ownership and PSB
Ofcom has examined how policy objectives in
news are being delivered currently, and how PSB television news
fits into the broader news environment. Research has raised questions
about whether established objectives are still relevant; and identified
areas where delivery of television news, in particular, may be
less effective in future than it has been in the past.
For the last 50 years the UK's public service
broadcasting tradition has ensured high-quality news provision
on both the BBC and independent television channels. It has been
a clear policy objective of both government and broadcasting regulators
to maintain and support plurality in the supply of high quality
PSB news. In an era of limited TV sources, there was an assumption
that this simple plurality would help avoid a one-dimensional
perspective on the news, and encourage diversity and breadth of
appeal.
The historically established focus—based
purely on simple plurality of supply—may not necessarily
deliver sufficiency of plurality nor the distinctiveness
and diversity of voice for the demands of a new era.
No firm conclusions have yet been reached, but
the Ofcom report, New News, Future News has opened up debate
on three key areas. In particular:
— It is suggested that national
and international news may well continue to feature on major PSB
channels, even in the absence of any regulatory obligations to
do so—although there may be growing commercial constraints
on in-depth and investigative reporting, beyond the BBC.
— There are far greater challenges
facing programmes for the UK nations and regions on ITV. Without
new funding arrangements, such programmes may be unsustainable.
This may be of greatest concern in the UK nations, because of
the devolved governments and the increasingly distinctive legal
and political circumstances of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
— There are few regulatory levers
available to tackle concerns about disengagement among some sections
of society, referred to above. One issue for further debate could
be the requirement in primary legislation for impartiality across
all TV channels. Greater freedom to take up viewpoints on niche
and minority channels might help address the disengagement, although
the absolute requirement for due impartiality would remain essential
for all PSB/mainstream channels.
Ofcom believes the future of news, especially
on television, is an important subject which now requires the
fullest possible debate.
September 2007
11 http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/mediaDetail.asp?MediaDetailsID=203383&NewsAreaID
=2&ClientID=201&LocaleID=2##hlend Back
12
http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/inquiries/ref2007/itv/index.htm##hlend Back
13
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/mediaDetail.asp?MediaDetailsID=203383&NewsAreaID
=2&ClientID=201&LocaleID=2##hlend Back
14
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/research/impartiality.html Back
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