News 24 at risk of closure unless BBC raises standards

The BBC was given an ultimatum by the Government yesterday to improve its rolling news channel, News 24, or risk closure of the operation.

Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said the service would have to be overhauled by February following the publication yesterday of a government-commissioned report into the channel.

The report by Richard Lambert, the former editor of the Financial Times, advised the Government to draw up new performance and scrutiny measures, saying the channel did not give value for money.

Despite an annual budget of £50m, News 24 had a 0.1 per cent audience share last year.

The Lambert report said News 24 should make more use of the BBC's newsgathering operations to make international news its specialist niche.

It also said BBC governors should revamp the station's remit to give "a much clearer sense of direction". And it called on governors to report more fully on how the service delivered its objectives each year.

Ms Jowell said: "I've said before that the BBC should provide us with public service channels that are distinctive from commercial channels.

"I see no reason why News 24 should be any different. Richard Lambert's report has persuaded me that the BBC governors need to deliver a clearer remit for News 24: one that will produce a high quality public service rolling news service whilst at the same time develop a distinct identity for the channel."

A spokesman for BSkyB welcomed the report, saying it was "long overdue". He said the report accepted Sky News's criticism that News 24 had been "too imitative in copying many of our innovations" rather than developing a service of its own. He added: "Sky News has always welcomed competition from the BBC."

A BBC spokesman said the challenge was "to create a more distinctive and even better quality service than its competitors". It accepted that it should publish "a clear editorial proposition for the channel".

The BBC said it was already looking to strengthen regional coverage. This could be done by illustrating more national stories from a regional perspective. The corporation said BBC governors would look at how it could improve News 24's financial transparency.

Richard Sambrook, director of BBC News, said: "We are very pleased by Richard Lambert's support for News 24 and we welcome his suggestions for improvement.

"We believe that the channel still has great potential for growth and it has always been our ambition to develop the channel further to meet the audience need for BBC News around the clock."

Conservative culture spokesman John Whittingdale said the Lambert review confirmed News 24 has departed from the BBC's public service remit and represented unfair competition, paid for out of the licence fee.

"This is just one example of the way in which the BBC is now pursuing an aggressively commercial approach both with licence fee-funded services as well as those operated by BBC Worldwide," he said.

Analysis, page 19; Leading article, page 20