ITV attacked for 'derivative' shows and lack of current affairs depth

ITV's dwindling audiences are the result of "patchy, predictable and derivative" programming, a watchdog suggested yesterday in a highly critical report. Five weekly instalments of Coronation Street and Emmerdale are "posing a threat to diversity in peak-time" television, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) said.

The ITC was also concerned at the celebrity content of the flagship current affairs programme Tonight with Trevor McDonald, saying that interviews with Mariah Carey and Michael J Fox "stretched the definition of current affairs to its limit". It said ITV's current affairs coverage provided "insufficient analysis, international coverage, investigations".

The commission also noted that ITV News had a difficult year in 2002, when rescheduling led to its main evening bulletin suffering from shrinking audience share. It was nicknamed "News at When?"

ITV's peak-time documentary output was dominated by "predictable" series, under titles such as "... from Hell" and "Confessions of ...". Further criticism was directed at the day-time discussion programme Trisha, which the watchdog said had adopted a "confrontational style that caused some viewers and the ITC concern".

Sports coverage was another problem area, with audiences for The Premiership tumbling to 3.5 million.

The scathing appraisal, in the last ITC annual report before it hands over regulatory responsibility to Ofcom, completes a miserable 2002 for ITV. As well as the collapse of ITV Digital, it struggled to cope with a 7 per cent fall in net advertising revenue, from £3.47bn in 2001 to £3.22bn last year. Yesterday Sarah Thane, the ITC's director of programmes and advertising, said ITV had been forced to schedule repeats and extra instalments of soap operas because more expensive drama production had been held back.

Thane, with the ITC's chairman, Sir Robin Biggam, and its chief executive, Patricia Hodgson, agreed that ITV had improved in the early months of 2003 after £100m of increased investment in programme making.

In its defence, ITV said it had delivered a "diverse, quality schedule" in 2002. It cited the dramas Dr Zhivago, The Forsyte Saga and Bloody Sunday as "critical and ratings successes".

The ITC's criticisms of ITV contrasted with its glowing assessment of Five, which it said had achieved "widely recognised credibility as a significant and successful force in UK broadcasting".

Channel watch

ITV

A traumatic year in which advertising revenue plummeted and ITV Digital collapsed. Audiences fell by 10 per cent and audience share from 26.75 per cent in 2001 to 24.13 per cent. The ITC questioned why Tonight with Trevor McDonald, pictured, carried showbiz interviews and criticised ITV'sreliance on soaps.

Channel 4

Despite "serious financial pressures" in 2002, Channel 4 made "by far the greatest contribution to diversity of any of the commercial public service broadcasters", the ITC said. The station increased its audience share to 10.01 per cent. Successes included Channel 4 News, Phoenix Nights, pictured, and Jamie's Kitchen.

Five

"One of the success stories of 2002." Having rebranded itself from Channel 5 it offered "a more mature, cleverly scheduled programme line-up". Viewer share rose from 5.76 per cent to 6.28 per cent. Successes included Five News, pictured, The Wright Stuff and Inquisition. But Live with Chris Moyles was a flop.

Sky

Unlike cable operators ntl and Telewest, which had financial problems in 2002, BSkyB continued to add subscribers, ending the year with 6.6 million. The ITC contrasted the growing audiences for Sky's Premiership football coverage, pictured, with ITV's dwindling viewing figures for top-flight football.