Border campaign wins huge support

Border TV’s campaign to save its flagship programme, Lookaround, prompted 13,000 people to write to Ofcom.

Last week Ofcom published a summary of the responses to the first phase of its review into public service broadcasting.

More than 270 formal responses were submitted, including one from BECTU.

Border TV, which along with every ITV regional news service, is threatened with severe cutbacks, has been the focus of a major community-wide campaign launched last autumn to save the station’s distinct identity.

Ofcom has been urged by BECTU not to agree to ITV’s planned cuts before the impact of the planned changes has been fully assessed as part of the PSB review.

Ofcom’s summary report says “the majority of respondents were against ITV’s regional news proposals.” ITV announced last September that it wants to cut spending on regional news by £40-50 million from 2009.

BECTU, the NUJ and Unite are working jointly on the national Save ITV News campaign.

Ofcom also revealed that more than 3,000 people have raised objections to the suggestion that the BBC licence fee could be shared with other broadcasters. The joint unions launched a postcard campaign against “top-slicing” in June.

The suggestion is one of four options for the future funding of PSB which are being debated as part of the review.

Ofcom will now be considering all responses in preparation for the second phase of PSB consultation in the autumn.