BBC and ITV could share resources

Editorial independence of the BBC and ITV would be maintained

The BBC and ITV have agreed an arrangement to share some resources for regional news.

The broadcasters signed a memorandum of understanding which could lead to ITV saving up to £7m a year, according to BBC director general Mark Thompson.

But he said editorial independence of the BBC and ITV would be maintained.

BBC Wales controller Menna Richards said ITV would still be "calling the shots" over its own news service and journalists would not be shared.

Ms Richards and Mr Thompson were appearing before the Welsh assembly's communities and culture committee in Cardiff, which is looking into the future of broadcasting.

Mr Thompson said it was already common practice internationally for broadcasters to share resources.

"In the context of national and regional news, this concept is of sharing certain base facilities," he said.

"We have been involved in very detailed discussions with ITV which involved people across England and Wales."

In a statement after the committee hearing, BBC deputy director general Mark Byford announced the memorandum signing and said it was "historic".

He said the change was needed to sustain plurality in regional news.

ITV estimates there could be a potential £1.5m saving to the broadcaster in 2011, rising to around £7m a year by 2016.

ITV's chief operating officer, John Cresswell, said: "Plurality in regional news is an important part of PSB (public service broadcasting) and we welcome this step in helping to support it."

PROPOSAL HIGHLIGHTS The BBC and ITV could share newsroom and studio facilities in England, but work in private areas The BBC would share some regional news picture gathering resources but nothing in the plans would stop either the BBC or ITV from generating their own exclusive stories A "pool" of pictures would be made available to both BBC and ITV ITV would have access to a proportion of raw footage gathered by the BBC's regional news teams In Wales, BBC and ITV news teams could be located at a single site in Cardiff by 2015 although the BBC's gallery and studio would remain separate to enable the broadcaster to deliver news in both English and Welsh

BBC Wales controller Menna Richards told the committee the agreement would mean pooling some resources and footage on stories where news crews were often doubling up already.

"If you have a press conference already... you look at Wales Tonight (ITV) and you look at Wales Today (BBC) and you see the same pictures because it's a single press conference," she said.

"That's the limit of it. That's the kind of thing we are talking about. We are not talking about journalists being shared," she added.

"We are not talking about special correspondents being shared - they would still be separate."

The committee also heard from Lord Stephen Carter, minister for communications, about broadband services.

He said huge progress had been made towards providing a universal service but they were still working to fix broadband "not spots".

"We've gone from a standing start to 98% coverage... that's not all bad," he said.

Iona Jones, chief executive of S4C, told AMs of proposals to provide a new English language news service on ITV Wales.

"S4C has infrastructure... but this will not happen at the expense of Welsh language broadcasting," she said.

A document outlining the Welsh language channel's proposals has been presented to the department of culture, media and sport (DCMS) in Westminster.