The useless ITC, now marking time waiting to become part of the useless OfGums, have finally - finally - finally - decided: no more News at When.
So it's to be the News at 10.30 (or the Late Evening News, I'd imagine) - just as we knew it would be, and a compromise that means films will still be split in half, despite ITV's 'cut for time' policy that has reduced many favourites to mere snippets.
The ITC adds a wonderful Notes To Editors:
The current scheduling pattern for the late evening news bulletin was introduced in January 2001, following the ITC's review of the decision to allow the News At Ten to be rescheduled to 6.30pm, with a late evening bulletin at 11pm. This did not achieve the audience ratings success expected. The ITC required the late news to be brought forward to an earlier slot of ITV's choosing. At that time ITV proposed, and the ITC agreed, to return to 10pm on an average of three nights a week. At the time of the review, the BBC evening news was scheduled at 9pm. The BBC subsequently moved their bulletin to 10pm, creating a scheduling 'head to head' with ITV.
Well, that's all fair then. This entire debacle was the fault of the BBC, and bit of the ITC. Craven money-grabbing and a disregard for viewers by ITV had nothing to do with it. Now It Can Be Told.
