ITV’s regional programme obligations have been confirmed.
And there are no surprises.
The new licences for Channel 3 and Channel 5 which run tor the next 10 years were published by Ofcom last week.
The details of the regional C3 licences confirm their obligations concerning news, current affairs and any other local output.
The volumes remain unchanged.
As well as regional news, STV, ITV Border and ITV Wales will still have to show an average of 90 minutes of regional output each week. 45 minutes, averaged over the year, will need to be at peak time.
UTV continues to have a higher obligation of 2 hours a week.
It is worth remembering these figures are floors rather than ceilings. Legally, there is no reason why these quotas cannot be exceeded.
The Border licence confirms that the non-news output can be taken from STV if wanted.
This was already the case but ITV opted to produce a full local service of its own for the Border Scotland region.
In the English regions, all the obligations can continue to be met by the regional news magazines and the monthly political programmes.
The volume of output essentially stems from the discussions between C3 and Ofcom more than 10 years ago.
It is worth noting that the volumes agreed then proved sustainable. In contrast in the noughties it seemed as if ITV was making regular calls for permission to drop output.
Other interesting details in the licences include confirmation that STV needs to run sub-opt bulletins within its 6pm programmes.
At present there is a little ambiguity over the company’s Freesat arrangements. The Tayside and North Fife region is not on Freesat. But it looks as if the main North of Scotland service (the principal former Grampian service) is finally about to become available in HD on Freesat.
However there has never been any obligation on any C3 licensee to provide all its sub-regions on satellite.
It’s also interesting to note that the ITV Breakfast licence does not spell out precisely how much regional news is required. Recently the 8.10am opt was dropped but the earlier bulletins were lengthened.
Of course, the fact all these obligations are included in the licences does not mean that changes may not be made in the future. The licences run for 10 years but will the current set of obligations?
The Media Bill means that Ofcom could, for example, allow ITV to move some of its PSB commitments to the digital channels or online.
It does not mean that they necessarily will.
From a legal point of view there is a little change of niche interest.
The licences now generally describe the regions by geography – not by the name linked to the former regional company.
It’s no longer ITV Granada – it’s ITV North West of England (Granada).
The regional licences in England and Wales have been held by ITV Broadcasting for several years. The old regional companies which once held the licences have either been dissolved completely or are classed as “dormant companies” at Companies House.
A dormant company is a company which is not trading but which could, in theory, be reactivated in the future.
Interestingly though UTV still exists as an actual entity – unlike the other regions within the UK. (Channel also exists as a separate company.)
UTV – not ITV Broadcasting – still holds the licence for Northern Ireland and is a trading subsidiary of ITV plc.
It still files annual accounts though presumably its sole income now is its ad revenue and its costs will be the expenditure associated with the local output and its share of the network budget.
None of this has any implications for on-screen branding or programme obligations though.
Another question looking forward is just when Ofcom will reopen its review of the rules on advertising which only apply to C3, C4 and C5.
The review was kicked into the long grass last year so the issues could be considered more holistically along with programme obligations and the impact of the Media Bill.
So, all in all, while licence renewal won’t mean any changes for the public I would be astounded if nothing changes over the next few years. But change will be a process and not an event.
Acknowledgements
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