Duel at Ten for news bulletins

Sir Trevor: "Ten o'clock is very much our time"

The BBC and ITV have gone head-to-head with their 10 o'clock news bulletins, clashing for the first time on Monday night.

ITV's main nightly news programme, back as News at Ten after two years in the 11pm slot, was presented by the familiar face of Sir Trevor McDonald.

But viewers keen to see the return of one of television's most famous news programmes had to wait an extra few minutes, as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? over-ran.

Ten o'clock is very much our time. We look forward to reclaiming it and doing well

Sir Trevor McDonald

The BBC bulletin also suffered a minor glitch, when a rogue fragment from a live broadcast momentarily drowned out anchorman Peter Sissons.

As well as starting late, News at Ten also ended two minutes early - lasting for 16 minutes. The BBC Ten O'Clock News lasted 33 minutes.

The deputy director of BBC News, Richard Sambrook, said in most respects the BBC's bulletin had twice as much to offer as News at Ten.

"The BBC Ten O'Clock News provided the most comprehensive, best quality bulletin for viewers," he said.

"We had twice as much news as ITV's bulletin, twice as much foreign coverage, twice as many live reports and were able to get the results of the late-night vote on embryo research.

'Polished'"Our bulletin included full regional coverage and original material from around the world."

But an ITV spokesman said programming chiefs were "very happy" with the return of News at Ten.

"Our bulletin was polished and it contained all the major news of the day," he said.

"We covered all the stories in suitable depth and all the issues of the day were discussed."

The spokesman dismissed the BBC's criticism that News at Ten was too short.

"The BBC's bulletin is not really 33 minutes long because it goes over to the regional news in the middle," he said.

"It is not a correct suggestion and it is not comparing like with like."

Exclusives

He said the "old" News at Ten had often begun one or two minutes late so it was "par for the course" for the new bulletin to do so.

"You have to bear in mind that we are a commercial broadcaster and we have advertisements, so you cannot compare us with the BBC in that respect."

Both programmes featured exclusive interviews; the BBC's with Paul Mukonyi, the man responsible for almost crashing a BA jet at the end of December, and ITV's with Conservative leader William Hague.

The BBC moved its news bulletin from 9pm to 10pm last October.

The BBC's 10 O'Clock News was launched in October

ITV's programme was ordered to return to its former time after the Independent Television Commission (ITC) said its move in 1999 to 11pm was not attracting enough viewers.

News at Ten had been moved to a later slot to allow ITV to show films without interruptions.

Following the ITC's insistence last September that News at Ten be revived, ITV challenged the order.

A compromise deal was reached to allow ITV more peak-time advertising if it returned the News at Ten.

But the BBC said ITV's decision to cut its bulletin to just 20 minutes meant it would be less comprehensive, and a spokesman said the channel would fight on quality, not short-term ratings figures.

It is almost two years since ITV axed News at Ten to make way for a later bulletin, and a year since BBC director general Greg Dyke took the top BBC post over from John Birt.

Mr Dyke said at last August's MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh: "Editorially we believe it is a better slot... but the main reason for the move is that we believe that more people will watch it, it's as simple as that."