I find it quite incredible that Britain's second biggest national news organisation, ITV, intends to cut its one remaining political programme, Sunday Edition. According to Guardian Online it is about to be axed due to an alarming drop in ratings. Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if you shift its start time every week many people will miss it. If ITV schedulers had been in any way sensible they would have put it on at 11am each day or 1pm. I wanted to watch it the other weekand switched on at 11am to find it was already over. Crazy.
ITV is becoming a joke organisation in the field of news and current affairs. It's almost impossible to watch the News at When without thinking of Drop the Dead Donkey. They have cut their regional output to virtually zero and now even want to amalgamate various regional newsrooms.
I don't know what OfCom regulations ITV have to abide by in terms of current affairs television, but it's clearly not working. The only political show on ITV will be the excellent GMTV Sunday Programme - but that goes out from 6am to 7am. What a sorry state of affairs.
22 comments:
So we'll have the make do with the political programmes on the Brown Broadcasting Corporation?
Thank God someone else is as miffed about this as I am!
ITV have ridden all over their public service obligations in pursuit of corporate profits for long enough!
And that buffoon Tessa Jowell has let them get away with it.
Regional output has never been so poor. And regional political and current affairs coverage is now almost non-existent.
ITN overdoses on studio graphics but doesn't even do widescreen
Just watched a 70s World in Action, about Steve Biko. It's hard to imagine that this was broadcast at primetime on ITV. ITV is now a joke.
Why limit it to news and current affairs?
ITV is a buisness NOT a public service so they should be allowed to do whatever they wish. On the other hand Marrs show is going downhill fast. Two lots of news headlines, a weather forecast, a handful of people plugging their books while reviewing the papers and a musician! All political shows should be on the wireless.
Well when 18DowningStreet gets going in the New Year why don't you do your own Sunday Thing?
OK, Dale. So far so good. Just stick to the guidelines and all will be well.
ITV belongs to a distant time, it gets it viewers by its position on the analogue spectrum.
ITV, has a core of programmes that get high ratings, if it was not for those, the channel would really not be missed, and would, if lost its analogue position, unlikely to get more ratings then digital channels like hallmark.
At this rate Iain Dale will soon be a joke, too.
Iain,
Looks like this just makes your new media offering all the more relevant.
ITV are a private firm. Let them broadcast what they like. Ofcom don't tell you what to put in the new media, shouldn't the old media be treated the same?
The BBC and ITV are now racing downmarket to capture the largest possible audience. If you switch on any of the main channels at prime time you will probably see:
1) Reality television, often squalid, and always interrupted at two minute intervals by a voice over telling you what you've just seen and heard for yourself;
2) Live entertainment, with audiences cheering and screaming at performers who would have gone down a bomb at Butlin's Holiday Camp in 1953; or
3) Soaps, in which members of the working and criminal classes behave badly and shout at each other.
Better to read a good book.
freedom to prosper - ITV is given room on the scarce anaolgue spectrum and prime place on EPGs in return for a) money and b) fulfilling its remits set by OFCOM which, in turn, are ultimately set by the Secretary of State who is accountable to Parliament. 18DS it ain't!
anyone working in current affairs and especially political TV should be very concerned by this move. whether or not the sunday edition was your cup of tea, other broadcasters will take their cue from this, if they are allowed to. someone needs to have a stiff word with OFCOM and make sure that this isn't repeated elsewhere.
See the BBC message boards for my views on "Local" issues. Most regions are struggling to fill half an hour at tea time on the telly so let's shift it to radio. The other advantage of radio (which I love) is the pictures available do not dictate the story. If you really want to win an election get rid of the TV licence a real vote winner.
AS another mentions - this should present itself as an opportunity for 18DS to fill the gap.
Lets face it, you are going to have to work 24/7.
Andrew Rawnsley gave up a v well remunerated job presenting the Westminster Hour on R4 to do Sunday Edition. One wonders what he'll do now...
I can't see what your problem is. They have obviously been driven out by low cost internet operators. There could even be some Sunday advertisinfg revenue available for 18 Doughty Street to make it worth your while.
"ITV is becoming a joke organisation in the field of news and current affairs."
That would be just like Al-beeb then.
I used to be an avid devotee to just about all the politics/news progs. These days I rarely bother. It's always the same kind of stuff: propaganda against england/America/the West, love of immigrants/terrorists/the EU.
How about the tories do something useful and close down the bbc and thereby make room for a variety of competing views?
With Freeview now offering practically unlimited channel bandwidth, isn't there a case for deregulation?
ITV News used to be the staple when I was growing up, now I hardly ever watch it. ITV also move other regular programmes around to fit in with I'm A Celebrity which is really irritating.
If ITV can't make any money out of politics then what that is really showing is that there is a problem with politics, not ITV.
They manage to do quite nicely on chefs, celebs and soaps.
Just because some of us are interested in the westminster village does not mean we should get special treatment in terms of viewing hours devoted.
I believe firmly in us living in a free country; if people are not interested in politics then so be it. I am not sure having quota's and ofcom interfering is really going to solve that problem, is it?
The problem is 'how do you make a subject that is terminally dull, which has terminally dull people in it interesting?' Answer- you don't. Politicians today equal liars. So why take a subject (which has hardly any credibility left) with no mass appeal and put it on telly? Another problem is even the interviewers are 'media figures' now (with well known political biases), which is precisely what most of our politicians are now ( ie) Widders, Charlie the Alcoholic, Boris etc).
i expec it hav already been noted, but never mind, that, as a vulgar and commercial enterprise with no public service remit whatsoever... so what?i thought you monetarists liked all this 'free market' hoo-hah.
itn have failed to match sky's independent "opposition" to the bbc with any of their mainstream itv1 offerings & i only hope 'channel4 news' and 'more4 news' survive their retreat from any serious news coverage in the uk mainstream media
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