So what might the world of TV news look like if culture secretary John Whittingdale had managed to force the BBC to reschedule its main 10pm news programme?
Well, last night viewers got a little taste of world according to Whitto.
The BBC took the rare decision to push its main bulletin to 10.30pm to make way for Reg, Jimmy McGovern’s 90-minute drama on Reg Keys, the man who took on Tony Blair in his Sedgefield constituency after his son’s death in Iraq.
ITV’s News at Ten thus found itself in the clear, enjoying a bumper night with 3.6 million viewers and a 21% audience share, well up on the usual level of about 2 million viewers.
The later slot didn’t work well for the BBC which pulled in an average of 2.4 million viewers between 10.30pm and 11pm, against a usual audience of about 4 million when head-to-head with ITV.
ITV news chiefs will be annoyed that ultimately the culture secretary’s BBC white paper pretty much backed down over the competitive scheduling issue, only warning that the corporation should “carefully consider any negative impacts” of its scheduling decisions.
