Next week marks the 25th anniversary of the end of the original run of what was then called the ITN News at Ten.
The controversy which surrounded the decision is a reminder of another age.
Some ITV companies argued for the move as soon as the network was deregulated in 1993.
But it took the ITC five years to allow what was initially a one-year experiment.
So on 5th March 1999, the ITN Early Evening News at 5.40pm and ITN News at Ten came to end. The following Monday the ITV Evening News at 6.30pm and the ITV Nightly News at 11pm got underway.
But, of course, we all know how it turned out. It wasn’t pretty for ITV.
A shortened News at Ten returned three-times-a-week in early 2001.
The BBC – during a competitive period under Greg Dyke – moved the BBC News at Nine back by an hour. The original plan to do this in the autumn of 2001 was abandoned and instead put into action at breakneck speed. The BBC programme launched in October 2000.
In 2004 ITV put up the white flag and moved its late news back to 10.30pm.
Then Michael Grade, as ITV’s executive chairman, reinstated News at Ten in 2008.
Initially its format copied the programme’s glory days. The titles aped those of 1988 and Trevor McDonald briefly came out of retirement.
It is all a sorry saga. The ITC, in retrospect, should not have allowed News at Ten to end in 1999.
But we are where we are. Linear news audiences have fallen significantly since then.
ITV’s commitment to the scheduling of News at Ten today seems lukewarm.
It is regularity pushed back for all sorts of reasons. In the coming week it is on late twice because of Celebrity Big Brother. This scheduling will probably continue all through March.
To be fair, later editions sometimes rate well – especially if they benefit from a big inheritance on the day of a big story.
But it is hard to build up a dedicated audience when the programme dances around the schedule.
I still believe it is in nobody’s interests for both principle channels to show their late news at the same time.
ITV should move its late news back to 10.30pm.
If you believe in media plurality, you will know that some news junkies might actually want to watch both.
It is a good thing to see two high quality programmes made by different organisations – each with many strengths.
Those who want to, can see different treatments of the same story and see different sets of original and exclusive stories.
However until ITV is able to screen more ads in peak time there is little commercial incentive to move News at Ten back permanently.
When ITV runs a big programme through to 10.30pm, some advertising is dropped earlier in the evening. Ordinarily there are no ads between the start of News at Ten and 11pm.
Imagine if you could only look at one news website or read one newspaper. It’s unthinkable in a democracy. Yet that is, in effect, the case when it comes to two of the most important news programmes in the country.
Now imagine being able to watch both BBC One and ITV 1’s main news each evening again regularly.
This may seem a strange statement to make coming from someone who cares about journalism and public service broadcasting but moving News at Ten to 10.30pm could actually be in the positive public interest.
But how sad deregulation and a mistake 25 years ago led to this.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: Sir Trevor McDonald presenting ITN News at Ten in March 1999. COPYRIGHT: ITN/ITV plc.