As ITV threatens to drop news commitments, viewers accessing the live stream of ITV1 on ITVX have found it’s missing regional programmes.
The ITV1 live stream is a simulcast of ITV London, which means regional programmes such as Calendar for Yorkshire, ITV News Central in the Midlands and Granada Reports in the North West can’t be live streamed. And on the day of the official launch of ITVX, ITV1’s regional late night programmes were also unavailable to stream.
The lack of regional ITV1 versions comes despite the requirement to enter a postcode when registering for the service.
ITV’s regional news bulletins remain a core part of ITV1, which started out as a collection of regional broadcasters. A requirement to broadcast regional news bulletins is stipulated by regulator Ofcom as part of ITV’s public service broadcasting commitments. For now, viewers will need to switch back to ITV1 on platforms including Freeview, Sky, Virgin or Freesat.
ITV threatens to drop news commitments
But ITV has indicated that it will move to drop its news commitments altogether if ministers don’t intervene against competition from streaming services. In a document leaked to The Guardian, ITV has urged the Government to press ahead with legislation that’s been stalled.
A White Paper was published earlier this year setting out plans to guarantee ongoing prominence on new connected and online TV platforms. In return for prominence, ITV and other commercial public service media would then commit to offering news and current affairs programmes. But the legislation has stalled following months of political turmoil and a battle over the future of Channel 4 that was tagged onto the White Paper.
Walking away from its news commitments would mean ITV1 would no longer be guaranteed the third slot on TV channel lists from 2025. But ITV argues this is becoming less important in an online world without changes to legislation.
ITVX News content
ITVX has launched an enhanced national and international news service with extra updates throughout the day. It also includes additional video reports from ITV News correspondents and content from ITV’s various news programmes. To do this, it’s created 19 extra roles within the organisation.
But unlike US streaming services, ITV has so far not opted to create a dedicated streaming news channel like NBC News Now or CBS News (formerly CBSN). Such a move would likely devalue its current threats to drop news commitments from its main channel.