ITV executives criticise 'arrogant' BBC as News at Ten row escalates

ITV news executives are privately seething about the BBC’s response to its revamped 10pm bulletin and have accused their rival of “arrogance”.

Insiders at ITV expressed surprise at BBC1 anchor Huw Edwards’ triumphant reaction to the higher viewing figures for his bulletin since its rival News at Ten was revamped with Tom Bradby as the main anchor.

Describing the BBC as a “massive gorilla on the block”, one senior ITV news executive said the channel had been shocked by Edwards’ response in Facebook and Twitter posts.

“We are just trying something a bit different but their attitude is such they are trying to smash and crush us,” he said. “Their arrogance has got to such a level.”

The row escalated after Edwards poked fun at his rival on Facebook for “conspiring to lose”4.2 million viewers who had watched the “excellent Doc Martin” at 9pm, pointing out that the BBC attracted more than twice ITV’s audience for its 10pm bulletin.

He rammed home the message on Twitter.

While ITV executives declined to go on the record to avoid “tit-for-tat point scoring”, they expressed their surprise at his behaviour.

The ITV bulletin benefits from strong preceding shows at 9pm whereas figures suggest viewers turn on the BBC at 10pm. On Tuesday night, some 4 million watched the BBC news, 24% of the viewing public, 1 million more than watched the main 9pm drama River.

On ITV the opposite tends to be true. On Tuesday night 4 million watched Lewis, a 19% share, with roughly half those viewers turning off or over at 10pm, leaving just 2.1 million, or 12.5% of the audience, to watch the news.

It is partly to address this slide that ITV has poured resources into News at Ten, which, although award-winning before Bradby was made sole anchor three weeks ago, has long struggled to gain any traction against a resurgent BBC news.

Although he said he wished ITV “well”, Edwards’ accusation of “creative handling of audience figures” caused particular consternation at the commercial channel.

ITV’s own figures suggest that, when the news is shown in its main slot of 10pm, it has averaged 2 million since the relaunch, up 500,000 on the year. However, these figures include HD and ITV1+1 viewing, leaving rival broadcasters to claim the real figures should be closer to a 1.7 million average.

The row is likely to stir political controversy. In September, culture secretary John Whittingdale surprised an audience of TV executives when he questioned why the BBC would run its main flagship bulletin against ITV in the first place.

The BBC said in a statement: “We are proud that more than 4 million people a night have been tuning into our 10 o’clock news bulletin for 10 years.

“We are always aiming to offer them the best possible news analysis from home and abroad.”

The attempt to revive ITV’s news schedules follows a proud, if tarnished, history at the network. When launched in July 1967 it was the first permanent 30-minute news broadcast in the UK. Initially scheduled for only 13 weeks due to fears that its length would turn viewers off, it went on to become the most popular news show in Britain, launching the careers of some of our beest known newsreaders such as Alastair Burnet, Reginald Bosanquet, Sandy Gall, Alastair Stewart and Trevor McDonald. In Anna Ford, the ITV show also appointed its first female anchor.

As commercial pressures started to bite in the late 1990s, ITV executives pushed to drop the news for more advertiser-friendly entertainment slots. The bulletin was axed in 1999 prompting public protest.

There followed eight years of the programme flip flopping around so much, it was dubbed “News at When”. It wasn’t until January 2008 that News at Ten was permanently reinstated to the ITV schedule after new chairman Michael Grade had called the original decision to move it “a shocking mistake [that] damaged ITV more than anything else”.

Bradby has made much of the bulletin’s conversational tone while ITV has stressed a return to the serious news provision of earlier years. Its opening night three weeks ago featured an almost six minute film about the refugee crisis filmed in Lesbos by senior international correspondent John Irvine. It was described by programme insiders as “something that hasn’t run at that length since the early 1990s”.

With the arrival of Peston as well as the revamp, ITV bosses appear just as keen to get ITV news talked about again as to improve its ratings. At this early stage, they appear to have largely succeeded.