ITV breakfast show Good Morning Britain is closing its New York office following a review of the programme’s operations.
It comes as executives try to figure out how to boost ratings for Good Morning Britain as it approaches its nine-month anniversary in January.
Last month, ITV director of television Peter Fincham said he would like to see an improvement in the breakfast programme’s audience figures and, in May, he said that the time to discuss the show’s ratings was early next year
Over the last week, Good Morning Britain has been averaging around 600,000 viewers – the same as its predecessor Daybreak did during the same time period last year.
Good Morning Britain launched in April with four presenters – including BBC Breakfast’s former presenter Susanna Reid – after the producers spent time in the US studying the success of such shows as a Good Morning America.
However, it has reviewed its US operations and decided to close its New York bureau as part of an efficiency drive.
Two staff were employed there and the producer is being transferred to the show’s Los Angeles office, leaving the programme to rely on an independent company to broadcast the latest news from America.
An ITV spokesperson said: “USA news coverage will remain an integral part of the ITV Breakfast output. ITV is proud of the new show, and we are pleased by the recent audience increases.”
After Good Morning Britain launched, ratings dipped below 400,000, but they have since stabilised and, according to ITV figures in November, it averaged 592,000 viewers – up 50,000 on October.
Despite heavy promotion on-air, the programme is still regularly beaten by its BBC1 rival. BBC Breakfast attracts around 1.4 million viewers on weekdays.
It is understood that the show makes good money from competitions and adverts, but when it comes to audience figures, it has not yet broken through to the extent that ITV hoped it would, so changes to the show may be on the horizon.
Speaking last month at the Salford Media Festival, Fincham said Good Morning Britain had the broadcaster’s support and that ITV was taking a long view – as outlined by chief executive Adam Crozier in June when he said the broadcaster was backing the programme for a one- to two-year period.
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