BBC 'wins' battle of news bongs

Sir Trevor (r) said he was delighted to be back in the 2200 slot

The BBC's Ten O'Clock News was watched by 4.9m viewers, while 3.8m tuned in for ITV's revamped News at Ten, initial overnight figures have suggested.

The BBC got an audience share of 23.4% and ITV claimed 18.4% of viewers. Last week the BBC averaged 4.6m viewers, while ITV averaged 2m for the bulletin.

ITV had an exclusive with Hasnat Khan, Princess Diana's former lover, and featured the "and finally" story.

The BBC had an undercover report on internal politics from Zimbabwe.

Huw Edwards presented Monday's BBC bulletin

The BBC's programme peaked at 5.1m viewers, while ITN had a peak of 4.2m in its first fifteen minutes.

Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce share the presenting of the BBC's Ten O'Clock News.

The BBC said: "Competition is good for viewers and it's good to see so many tuning in to watch news.

"It's too early to say how the figures will pan out over the longer term, but over the last year the BBC's Ten O'Clock News has performed extremely well, gaining 320,000 viewers."

The BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, said the corporation remains "totally committed to news at regular times six nights week".

"If the result of this is that the total audience for news goes up, nobody will be happier than me," he said.

ITV's director of television, Simon Shaps, said: "We are very pleased that the return of News at Ten was watched by over four million viewers last night.

THE EDITORS' BLOG Putting the two bulletins head to head will keep all of us on our toes Peter Horrocks, Head of BBC Newsroom Peter's comments in full

"This is an increase of over 1.5 million viewers on the average for the previous 10.30pm ITV News bulletin and a marked improvement across the 10.00pm slot."

Sir Trevor McDonald, who last presented ITV's evening news bulletin in 2005, said he was "delighted to be back" as the channel's lead newscaster.

News at Ten was first dropped in 1999 after nearly 32 years on air, to make room for films to be aired in prime time. The BBC capitalised on the move by shifting its main news to 2200 a year later.

ITV's bulletin returned again for three years from 2001, after which the broadcaster settled on 2230 as the time for its main news bulletin.

News at Ten's latest revival is part of a schedule revamp which has shifted soap operas Emmerdale and Coronation Street out of their Sunday night slots.

Weekends are being given over to more drama and entertainment, including the new series of Dancing On Ice which began on Sunday evening.

Other new ITV1 programmes include quiz show Duel and improvisation show Thank God You're Here, featuring comic Paul Merton.