ITV news could take soap slot

The demise of News At Ten sparked controversy

ITV is considering moving its 6.30pm Early Evening News bulletin up to an hour later in the schedules, it has been reported.

TV regulator the Independent Television Commission (ITC) had ordered ITV to move its 11pm news forward an hour because of low ratings, a decision ITV plans to fight in the courts.

But an announcement by BBC director general Greg Dyke that the corporation's Nine O'Clock News is to move to 10pm has effectively made the ITC plan redundant.

The BBC move has crystallised the news issue

Charles Allen, Granada Media

The commission now accepts that the only way to increase the ratings for ITV's news programmes is to move the 6.30pm bulletin, The Guardian has reported.

Later this week, the paper says, ITV will propose to move the bulletin, presented by Sir Trevor McDonald, to 7pm or 7.30pm, the slot occupied by soap Coronation Street.

The Guardian reported that Charles Allen, chairman of ITV group Granada Media, was contacting the ITC in an attempt to avoid the pending court case.

He told the paper: "The BBC move has crystallised the news issue. It's time for dialogue. We must see if there is a more intelligent way of doing this."

ITC 'flexible'

In response to the paper's reports, the ITC said if ITV put forward a "satisfactory" solution it would consider any proposal.

"There's flexibility here, there are options here, so of course we would be prepared to listen to any of the recommendations that ITV would want to put forward," a spokesman said.

The early evening news is not the issue

Gerald Kaufman

But the chairman of the House of Commons culture select committee Gerald Kaufman said he still wants to see the ITV late news moved back to 10pm.

"The early evening news is not the issue. News at 11pm does not attract a sufficient audience to fulfil its public service obligations and moving around the early evening news is not going to solve that problem," he said.

Poor ratings

If the ITC rejects the 7pm proposal ITV will consider moving the bulletin to 7.30pm - a slot currently occupied by some of the station's most popular programmes.

ITV's 6.30pm news programme has suffered in the ratings, competing against the BBC's relaunched national and regional bulletins.

The row over ITV's news programmes was sparked when the broadcaster dropped its popular News At Ten bulletin.

The ratings of ITV news have dropped by one million, 14% of the audience, since News at Ten was scrapped.