The House of Lords Communications Committee report, The Ownership of the News, published in June, was refreshingly, indeed robustly, critical of many of the fashionable (if increasingly tired) nostrums that still dominate the upper echelons of the mediasphere. Indeed, the heading of the accompanying press release — “Media ownership rules still have an important role to play in protecting the diversity of the news: the public service broadcasters are of crucial importance” — was almost guaranteed to ensure that News received the minimal press coverage it did.

The report, particularly critical of ITV’s proposals to cut back its regional news structure, argued: “Ofcom should carefully examine whether ITV’s policy will have an impact on local newsrooms and their ability to cover, quickly and accurately, stories of national importance. Ofcom should also consider the implications that a cut in ITV regional news commitments will have on the news-gathering capabilities of ITN and in turn the overall quality of ITV and Channel 4 news. We believe that plurality of regional television news is important and if ITV reduce their commitments in this area the BBC will have very little effective competition.”

Since the 1950s, the two providers of regional television news in the UK have been the BBC and ITV. The BBC currently provides separate news programmes for 12 English regions and for the other UK nations, while ITV produces 17 such programmes. For the first 25 years of ITV the regional franchise holders provided one regional news service for each franchise area, but in the 1980s they began to provide more localised news services or “optouts” in what were known as “sub-regions”.

One of the reasons regional news is so important is that it is highly valued by viewers. Thus research conducted for the 2007 Ofcom report, New News, Future News, showed that when asked: “Which type of news are you personally interested in?”, the most popular answer was: “Current events in the UK” (55 per cent), but that the second and third most popular answers were “current events in my region” (50 per cent) and “current local events where I live” (48 per cent; respondents could give more than one answer). These responses beat weather, crime, world events, sports, human interest stories, UK politics, entertainment and celebrity behaviour. And Ofcom’s second public service broadcasting review, published in April this year, showed that 78 per cent of respondents rate a “wide range of good quality news about my area” as a very important ingredient of public service broadcasting.

TV news is the most popular

However, despite its great popularity, the provision of regional news on ITV is in serious danger unless new forms of support are found. In its first review of public service broadcasting in 2004/5, Ofcom warned that programming for the regions and nations was ITV’s most expensive contribution to its PSB commitments, and that the economic pressures on it would only increase. And New News states: “Ofcom is committed to holding ITV licensees to nations and regions news obligations until at least 2014. But new forms of regulatory intervention are likely to be needed to ensure its long-term presence, because of the disproportionate cost of producing simultaneous programmes in all regions of the network.” The report also warned that “while no form of television news in the UK currently pays its own way, the economics are particularly stark for nations/regions news and it will require regulatory intervention if its long-term presence is deemed important on commercial PSBs”.

Currently it costs ITV about £85million a year to produce its regional news. The difficulties inherent in such a considerable spend were clearly outlined by Michael Grade, ITV’s executive chairman, in his evidence to the Lords Committee: “I have to reconcile a number of competing dynamics here: the interests of my shareholders, the interests of the audience and the sense of what traditionally ITV has meant to its audiences… We are in a fiercely competitive environment. We are losing audience share because of the fragmentation and that old settlement is no longer economically viable… We do believe that there is value for ITV audiences in the provision of regional news. There is an important democratic duty on us, I think, to provide a regional news alternative to the BBC and not to leave the BBC with a monopoly of regional news supply, but we have to do it in a way that we can justify to our shareholders. The old map, which is an analogue map based on the original ITV transmitter configuration, is just not viable. What I wanted to do was to come up with a model, embracing technology, which is about portability of news gathering now, which has changed out of all recognition. We have come up with a model that will save us £35 to £40million a year, will mean we are still investing £65million a year in regional news at a time when our revenues are threatened, our share of audiences falling, but we have come up with a model that we think will make the best use of what resources we are able to put in. I do not think the viewers will notice much, if any, difference because the news gathering on the ground is what counts. The fact that we do not have a building in this town or that town is neither here nor there.”

The first version of the scheme to which Grade was referring was proposed to Ofcom in September 2007 by ITV as part of its Turnaround Plan. This involved reducing, from 2009, its regional news operations from 17 (comprising 11 regions and six sub-regions) to nine, and also merging Border with Tyne-Tees, the East with the West Midlands, Meridian with Thames Valley, and the West with Westcountry (this last creating a “region” stretching from Land’s End to Gloucester). Six local opt-outs would also be axed in the Central, Meridian, Yorkshire and Anglia regions. After meeting very considerable opposition to these proposals from viewers and MPs, ITV then put forward in April this year an alternative scheme which, while still reducing the number of news regions from 17 to nine, would also introduce 18 new sub-regional services providing six-minute local opt-outs during the 6pm regional news programme.

In its second public service broadcasting review, Ofcom recognises that “continued provision of regional news is one of the most important shortterm issues in the public service broadcasting debate”, and notes that it is currently evaluating ITV’s proposals. It points out that it could respond in a number of ways, for example by refusing any change to current licences, or by allowing ITV to reduce its costs by a version of its re-structuring plan, or by considering other options for the sustainability of regional news, and has stated that it will announce its preferred option in the autumn, and then consult on this.

Timetable for redundancies

His letter also reveals that, once Ofcom has published its preferred option for regional news provision, ITV News Group will publish a regionby- region plan of the jobs available in the new services. A voluntary redundancy scheme will also be made available. ITV hopes to have the new jobs allocated by December. The new structure, subject to Ofcom’s decisions, would be introduced as early as practicable in 2009.

Jermey also revealed a new, homogenous regional current affairs strand, Here and Now, which will replace the various existing regional programmes. This will be launched early next year and will have close links to ITV’s online ITV Local service, which is highly locale-specific. Jermey said that the new strand would retain the “different feel” that he thinks has been a hallmark of ITV current affairs programming, but that content will “vary wildly from region to region” depending on what programme makers feel will resonate with the local audience.

However, even the normally technophile Ofcom notes in its second PSB review that although “in terms of the wider market context, there is increasing local online activity from: the nations and regions press; the ITV Local online service (and equivalent activity from non-ITV plc licensees in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands); and — subject to approval of the relevant public value and market-impact tests — the BBC”, its research indicates that “the internet is not currently seen by viewers as a substitute for nations and regions provision on broadcast television, and local video content remains an emerging and to some extent unpredictable sector”. But it is not simply viewers in the nations and regions who are extremely concerned at the prospect of any reduction of truly local content in their news programmes. For example, in its evidence to the Lords Committee, Channel 4 stated:

“Regional news presents an interesting case study of the impact of a reduction in quantity of news supply on the wider television news market… Clearly, if ITV were to cease to provide this form of news entirely, this would lead to a loss of plurality in television news for the nations and regions, leaving the BBC as the sole provider. Even a reduction in the overall number of regional news services raises concerns about whether the statutory quality requirements alone are sufficient to guarantee plurality. ITN — the main competitor in news provision to the BBC — provides news for Channel 4 and ITV. Both broadcasters benefit from the shared efficiencies of sourcing news from a single supplier. ITV’s presence in the nations and regions provides Channel 4 with access to news-gathering resource around the UK, which in turn enhances the quality and range of the Channel 4 news service as a whole. A retreat in terms of the amount of news gathering in the nations and regions by ITV would therefore have a knock-on impact on the quality and range of news-gathering resource available to ITN’s other customers, including Channel 4 News.” And, indeed, it’s not exactly hard to think of nationally significant stories which rely to a large extent on ITV’s network of regional reporters — for example, natural disasters, the differential impact of national economic factors on local economies (and on house prices in particular), the promotion of a local football team to the Premier League, and so on.

On July 17, Ofcom published a summary of responses to its second PSB review. Altogether unsurprisingly, this revealed “the majority of respondents were against ITV’s regional news proposals. In the interests of plurality many respondents thought it would be regrettable if regional news in any area were to become solely the preserve of the BBC, and advised against Ofcom authorising any immediate change to ITV licences”. But whatever a very sizeable majority of the population may want in terms of regional news provision, Ofcom’s track record in holding ITV to any of its PSB obligations is not exactly encouraging, to put it at its mildest. Nor is a comparison between The Ownership of News and Ofcom’s Annual Report 2007/8, which were published virtually simultaneously. For while the former repeatedly recommends that Ofcom plays a stronger role in protecting the public interest in broadcasting matters, the latter, with its breathless bromides about “citizens and consumers reaping the benefits of competition” and paeans to the communications cornucopia in which apparently we all now live, reads like a souped-up Comet or Currys catalogue with intellectual pretensions.

Banal and faintly sinister

New News and Ofcom’s first and second PSB reviews demonstrate in the clearest possible manner that what the vast majority of UK citizens want, at the very least, is the maintenance of the current level of provision of regional news programmes on ITV. But what does the Annual Report highlight as Ofcom’s proudest achievement in 2007/8 in terms of “improving compliance and empowering citizens and consumers”? Clamping down on the misselling of mobile phones; making it easier to switch mobile phone operators; introducing protection against “slamming” (having your phone account moved to another provider without your knowledge); imposing fines on broadcasters for operating premium phone-line scams; and requiring C4 to broadcast Ofcom’s censure of Celebrity Big Brother 2007 on three separate occasions. If this is the sum total of what Ed Richards means in his chief executive’s report when he states, in big bold letters, that “the interests of citizens and consumers are at the heart of everything we do at Ofcom”, then the prospects for public service broadcasting as a whole, let alone regional news provision on ITV, are indeed bleak in the extreme.