Is it the end of The Ferret?

Apr 23 2008 by Martin Shipton, Western Mail

ACADEMICS and pundits say they fear ITV Wales could effectively be out of business within little more than two years unless a concerted campaign is launched.

The end could come, they say, in the aftermath of Wales’ wholesale switchover to digital TV in 2010.

The fear is that the group’s London-based bosses will prefer the cheaper option of broadcasting down-market UK-wide programmes across the network.

An editorial in the new edition of the Institute of Wales’ journal Agenda states: “ITV is celebrating 50 years of broadcasting during 2008. In that time the Welsh franchise has gone through several permutations ... ITV Wales is now part of a merged ITV, which owns all the ITV franchises in England and Wales. Driven by commercialisation, each stage has seen a process of centralisation in which the distinctive dimension of Welsh broadcasting has been eroded and diminished. How far can the process go before we see an end to any autonomous Welsh presence within commercial broadcasting?

“The question is important on a number of fronts. In purely economic terms, ITV Wales contributes more than £12m of disposable income into the local economy and supports the equivalent of more than 670 jobs, according to a study carried out by the Welsh Economic Research Unit at Cardiff Business School in 2002.

“But, of course, the argument goes deeper than that. Welsh civil society, finding its voice in response to the coming of the National Assembly, is dependent on effective communications. Moreover, there are democratic dangers in the reduction of news outlets, quite apart from the cultural loss in seeing vehicles of expression shut down.”

The editorial goes on to ask how near the threatened end of ITV Wales might be, adding: “Unless there is a concerted campaign the answer could be very soon, perhaps not long after 2010.”

Three articles in the journal expand on the concerns.

Professor Richard Wyn Jones, of Aberystwyth University,

states: “With the sad decline of ITV Wales as a serious provider of news and current affairs, the BBC is effectively the monopoly supplier of news programming.”

Geraint Talfan Davies, the chair of the IWA who is a former controller of BBC Wales as well as having been an TV executive, asks in another article: “Is Wales going to be reliant only on the BBC for the bulk of broadcast news provision? Is ITV going to be allowed to withdraw completely from Wales? Are we within a year or so of seeing an end to Trevor Fishlock’s Wild Tracks, or The Ferret or even Wales This Week?”

Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, also from Aberystwyth University, states in her article: “ITV’s commitment to Wales has already been reduced, with non-news Welsh production down from four to three hours per week from January 2009”.

ITV Wales no longer has its own press office, with all media enquiries being handled by ITV’s corporate HQ in London.

A spokesman for ITV said: “ITV has a licence to broadcast lasts until 2014. It’s simply not true to say that we are running down our news service to Wales.

“We are delivering more Welsh news programmes than any other broadcaster, including the BBC. That amounts to five and a half hours per week, as well as the current affairs programme Wales This Week.And let’s not forget that ITV’s Welsh news is the most popular news broadcast in Wales.

“Commercial pressures are likely to be exacerbated over the next few years, and we are reducing our news coverage in the English regions. But that is not happening so far as our Welsh news service is concerned.

“Ofcom is undertaking a wide-ranging review of public service broadcasting to consider the future contributions of the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV. We have put forward to Ofcom a submission aimed at enabling us to sustain regional news services for the medium term.”