More on OfCom's review of the public service commitments of the terrestrial commercial broadcasters, and the media regulator has said that ITV will be able to cut back on its regional and current affairs programmes.
Regional programming, once a key part of the ITV proposition, could be cut by up to 50%, while the cuts in news programmes will come during off-peak times. Combining the two cuts - regional news programmes will also be reduced, though only slightly. ITV argues that regional programming is expensive to make - because it means having production teams in each region - but are not especially attractive to advertisers and sponsors.
As previously reported, ITV says the costs of the public service commitments that come with its ITV1 terrestrial licence are making it hard to compete in the increasingly competitive mutli-channel TV industry, and OfCom recently admitted that the value and prestige of having the third channel slot on the terrestrial TV network would soon not exceed the cost of fulfilling the public service demands made on ITV.