Why I fear for the future of news on ITV

I cannot be certain that Granada's was the best of ITV's regional news operations when I lived in Manchester in the late 1960s, and again for a period in the late 70s, because I wasn't able to monitor the output consistently at other stations. But I saw enough of almost all of them during that era to know that they offered proper competition to the BBC.

It would be glib of me to say that ITV's regional news output nowadays is, by contrast, hopelessly inadequate. After all, it must count in its favour that Granada Reports managed to pick up a BAFTA in 2007 — for the coverage of the aftermath of the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster — thus becoming the only regional news programme ever to win the award.

It's also to its credit that the ITV network news team led by Bill Neeley picked up a BAFTA earlier this year for its compelling footage of the Sichuan earthquake in China.

These facts should not blind us to the reality. Under-funded regional newsrooms are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with their BBC rivals. In February this year, some 430 jobs were axed across the ITV regions, accounting for 40% of the total.

In fairness, these cuts did not cut a swathe through front-line editorial staff, but they are an indication of the problem ITV faces as it signals a retreat from its regional public service commitment. The broadcaster has been candid enough to admit that it no longer has the resources to satisfy the remit.

It can point to the fact that viewership for its regional news programming has held up well, laying claim to an overall 20% audience share. And the cuts do not appear to have affected that level of interest.

But there is no doubt that the problems facing its news output are the same as those facing ITV overall, the digital transformation of the TV landscape — a point tacitly acknowledged by new ITV chairman Archie Norman on his appointment last week.

Audiences have fragmented and so has advertising as media buyers chase viewers across the wide range of TV channels now available — 486 as I write, but probably more by the time you read it. Then, of course, there is the phenomenon of online consumption, another drain on the attention of both people and advertisers.

It is painfully obvious that the framework that has sustained regional news services is being dismantled in front of our eyes. There just isn't enough revenue to fund the output. Regional journalism remains by far ITV's greatest public-service broadcasting cost, with about £55 million spent a year (plus £40 million on network news and £5 on current affairs).

The Government and the regulator, Ofcom, realise that ITV cannot sustain the sums required to continue this service and that's the reasoning behind the creation, in theory at least, of an alternative to in-house ITV regional news operations.

The Ofcom idea is to replace them with independently funded news consortia by using the unspent part of the licence fee that is currently earmarked to fund the digital switchover.

I say idea, but there are firm plans now to create pilot schemes in Scotland, Wales and one English region.

Then again, I am wary of using the terms "firm" or "pilot" because this imaginative scheme may never get off the ground. Though there is a timetable for bids and at least one consortium for the English region has been formed (a partnership between Trinity Mirror, the Press Association and Ten Alps) there is no chance of the consortia taking over until after next year's general election.

Since the Conservative Party's shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has made it clear that he favours a local, rather than regional, news structure, the Ofcom plan would be sunk if the Tories form the next administration.

Even if the consortia were to get the go-ahead, they would need to accommodate ITV's current regional news staffs. Legal advice suggests that they could not be fired, so the new would have to be grafted on to the old.

Seen in this light, there is a pie-in-the-sky element to the whole idea despite the management role granted to Ofcom in last week's publication of the Digital Economy Bill.

Anyway, as I reported in this column last week, Hunt has already decided to remove many of Ofcom's powers under a Tory government, so that's a non-starter too. As if that isn't bad enough, there is a big question mark over whether the funding that is supposed to be provided from the anticipated digital surplus from the licence fee will really be available. In other words, it isn't an overstatement to suggest that ITV regional news is heading towards a crisis. The broadcaster cannot afford to fund it indefinitely and the chances of a genuine replacement being ready to take over looks increasingly remote.

It is ironic that this looming crisis should become apparent at a time when ITV's regional news hubs are working more harmoniously with ITN than at any time in history.

ITN, in which ITV has a 40% stake, already runs the London region news operation. It has deep problems of its own. In a briefing to staff last week, during which about 20 job cuts were announced, it was revealed that the company lost £3 million in the first six months of this year. Newish chief executive John Hardie has announced a new and more logical structure that may help. He is also trying to deal with a worrying pension deficit, up to £40 million at the end of 2008 and growing at a fast rate ever since.

It seems that at both the regional and national level, the news for ITV news is bleak.

* Roy Greenslade is Professor of Journalism, City University London