ISBA Gives Limited Welcome To ITN News At Ten’s Return
The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) has given a cautious welcome to the agreement reached by the ITC and ITV which will see the limited return of ITN’s News at Ten (see News At Ten To Return To ITV). Unsuprisingly, the society welcomed the prospect of increased peaktime advertising and scheduling flexibility, but “continues to question” the ITC’s original intervention in ITV’s evening schedule.
Despite the fact that ISBA recently demanded a meeting with ITV regarding its falling audience figures (see ISBA Demands Urgent Meeting With ITV As Fate Of News At Ten Imminent), the society does not appear to support the ITC’s recent action against the channel, which was similarly motivated by falling new audiences. ISBA describes the action as “a backward step, shackling ITV in a time of increasing competitiveness in the commercial TV market.”
The new ITC/ITV agreement means that on four nights per week, ITV will be free to schedule the feature films and popular drama that News at Ten‘s demise was meant to make way for, while the 10pm bulletin, which is not expected to return under its original title, will go out a guaranteed three nights per week. “ITV today has considerably more flexibility than it did 18 months ago when News at Ten was scheduled 5 nights a week,” said ISBA.
A new way of distributing minutage will allow 2½ minutes more advertising during peaktime and a 30 second increase in mid-programme advertising breaks. These new regulations will also apply to other commercial channels, and are seen by ISBA as recognition of its “long-held stance on these issues.”
The future of the BBC’s plan to move the Nine O’Clock news to a 10pm slot (see BBC May Move Nine O’Clock News To Ten) is currently uncertain, as Culture Secretary Chris Smith has expressed his opposition to the move. In its statement, ISBA also questioned the public service benefit of having the two major terrestrial channels going head to head in news scheduling.
