A dilemma for TV news – and a PR opportunity

These are dark days for TV news. Certainly for the people working in it, and perhaps for viewers too.

They have more choice than ever, but I think the choices are worse than just having a well-funded foursome – ITV, BBC, Sky and Channel 4.

The newer options  – GB News, TalkTV, and a bunch of internet stuff (some of which is truly mad), mean audiences are fragmented.

So revenues for the traditional TV channels are lower. Just as the news gets bigger.

The conundrum TV news bosses are fighting is this: less money, more news

Covering things like the Ukraine war properly is really expensive. You can’t expect to make money from it – you do it because it needs to be done.

How do you split resources between what’s commercial and what is journalistic?

This week ITV’s content chief Kevin Lygo criticised the BBC for “bleating” about budgetswhile buying up expensive foreign TV shows such as Suits, the legal drama starring Meghan Markle.

He’s got an awfully good point, but the BBC needs competitive viewing figures to justify the licence fee so it has enough money to do the news. You can see its problem.

All of this happened to newspapers ages ago and the shift to digital is showing some signs of working as a business model, here and there, but clicks are worth so much less than a paid subscription.

The TV bosses, like newspaper editors, are trying to build a digital business while protecting the “legacy” channels which still make most of the money.

I think this is all harder for TV than for newspapers since the regulations are tougher.

This week Ofcom warned broadcasters about using politicians as hosts during the general election campaign.

I don’t see why GB News shouldn’t let Nigel Farage host a politics show during an election campaign – his views are not secret, no one thinks he is impartial – but the regulator sees it differently.

Into this unhappy show, a small window of hope opens, perhaps.

CNN boss Sir Mark Thompson is working on a complete overhaul of the business in the face of what he calls an “existential” challenge.

This includes the inevitable cost cuts, or as he puts it “significant opportunities for de-duplication of parallel organisations and structures and activities”.

Let me translate that for you: loads of hacks are going to get sacked.

The window of hope I mentioned is that one thing he wants to strengthen is financial news, an area where I’d say CNN is woefully under represented at the moment.

If he is serious, that means work for some of us. Those who don’t have a face that is best on the radio.

And opportunities for business flaks to get their clients onto what is still one of the best names in news.

Clutching at straws you say?

Not I. Have a good weekend.