Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom’s decision to accept ITV News’s proposed cuts in regional programming was predictable but regrettable.
ITV will merge its West and Westcountry regions and the minutes of dedicated regional news we receive will be cut by half. Savings of £40 million a year are sought and the staff will be reduced from 1,075 to about 650.
The main reason for cutting news coverage is diminishing advertising revenues as the television market fragments with the rush of new channels, while the credit crunch has not helped.Somerset already receives a poor service from ITV, with little interest shown beyond big set-piece events like the Royal Bath and West Show, Glastonbury Festival and carnivals.
The BBC’s coverage of this part of the world is not much better, despite the licence fee we pay. Coincidentally, ITV’s cuts come at the same time as Mid Somerset News & Media’s decision to start filming short news videos to be shown on our websites, probably one a week.The first one came out last week and featured flooding in Cheddar.
We don’t claim to have the expertise or resources of ITV or the BBC.We won’t have expensive sets or glamorous presenters with huge clothing allowances, but our videos will be local to mid-Somerset and available free on our websites thisiswells.co.uk, thisshepton.co.uk, thisiscentralsomerset.co.uk and thisischeddarvalley.co.uk.
Philip Welch
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment