Ofcom agrees Channel 5 request

Ofcom has agreed a request from Five to vary the terms of its licence requirements, as they relate to the provision of news programmes. This will allow Five to introduce a new evening schedule to coincide with the start of its new news supply contract with Sky News.

The new service will be launched in the New Year and will coincide with the issuing of Five’s digital replacement licence, which will reflect the revised requirements.

The agreement has been reached under Section 279 of Communications Act 2003, which sets out the duty of Ofcom to specify the appropriate time allocated to news on public service channels.

Five will be required to transmit 408 hours of news per year, of which 100 hours must be in “peak” viewing time. This amounts to 7.8 hours of news per week.

For comparison, Channel 4’s quota for news amounts to 4 hours a week; and ITV’s is for 7 hours per week (excluding GMTV). “Peak” is defined as 1800 to 2230.

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