25 September 2008
Commercial broadcaster ITV may be set to cut some of its regional news programmes and reduce its current affairs output in order to save money. The proposals were made by industry regulator Ofcom, which agreed that ITV should have its obligations as a public service broadcaster scaled down to help it deal with dwindling advertising revenues and adapt to changing viewer habits. The move comes ahead of the nationwide switch to digital TV, when consumers opting for satellite, cable and Freeview will have a much greater choice of channels to watch. Ed Richards, Chief Executive of Ofcom, said: "Audiences value public service programming highly, but strong digital TV take-up means it is becoming harder for our leading commercial broadcasters to provide this." A final statement on these and other proposals is expected to be published by Ofcom at the beginning of next year. Meanwhile, Broadcast magazine reports that ITV is to bring back the popular quiz show The Krypton Factor 13 years after it was taken off the air.