Fears for future of Newsnight as viewing figures plummet
BBC bosses have become increasingly concerned about flagship news programme Newsnight after discovering that it can be watched by as few as 166,000 people, according to a report in The Mail on Sunday.
Figures obtained by the middle-market tabloid reveal that the BBC2 show's overnight ratings have dropped to the lowest level in its 31-year history.
The newspaper reports: “The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) says the average audience is now around 450,000 viewers - roughly half what it was a decade ago - with some editions regularly struggling to reach the 200,000 mark.
“Official industry 'snapshot' figures show that one broadcast, on May 19, had only 166,000 viewers.”
The BBC programme has four presenters, led by Jeremy Paxman.They incude Kirsty Wark, a Scot who commutes to London regularly from her home in Glasgow.
On Monday through Thursday, BBC Scotland opts out of the national Newsnight slot at 11pm to screen Newsnight Scotland for the final 20 minutes – currently normally anchored by Gordon Brewer or Isobel Fraser.
The Mail on Sunday reports: “Newsnight’s [UK] ratings are part of wider concerns about the direction the programme is taking. There are worries it has moved away from its serious image, with Tory MP Douglas Carswell recently dubbing it 'Newslight' - and there has even been a suggestion that it may be cut back to fewer editions each week.
“Last month its best-known presenter, Jeremy Paxman [who is reputed to have a yearly contract worth £1 million from the BBC], chaired a discussion on female grooming which caused him to be gently mocked both within and outside the BBC.
“Sources say the show is under considerable pressure, with staff leaving; fewer film packages being made; and its £8 million-a-year budget facing cuts of up to 20 %. The role of editor Peter Rippon, a former editor of the PM programme on Radio 4, has also been called into question.”
The newspaper quotes a BBC employee as saying: “Newsnight is in a pretty terrible state at the moment. Compulsory redundancies in news and current affairs are going to start very soon, so more people are likely to leave.”
Another insider is quoted as pointing out: “There has been a change of direction. The set has changed and the style has changed. The programme has broadened. But news broadcasting has undergone a serious transformation recently and a lot of it has to do with 24-hour rolling news.
“The view is that Newsnight's terrain will be much more focused on analysis and less on reporting.”
The Mail on Sunday adds: “The source added that despite some anxieties being felt recently 'across the programme', it was too early to say if Newsnight would be cut back to fewer editions each week. The source said : 'We received a significant boost recently when new BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten told us that he is a great fan of Newsnight - particularly our foreign coverage’.
The newspaper goes on: ”There has been continued speculation that replacing one of the programme's four presenters may inject new life into it. Mr Paxman, who has worked on Newsnight since 1989 ... is not thought to be on the danger list.
“According to the BARB ratings, his grumpy image remains most popular with viewers. One edition he hosted in June pulled in an audience of 986,000. The programme's other presenters are Kirsty Wark, Emily Maitlis and Gavin Esler.”
The newspaper quotes a BARB source as saying: “The figures suggest that when Question Time is on BBC1 on Thursdays, Newsnight's audience suffers considerably. That's where we get the 166,000 figure. The average overnight viewing figures hover around the 450,000 to 500,000 mark, but there are sometimes highs of 900,000.”
The Sunday tabloid quotes a BBC spokesman as saying that its research showed an average Newsnight audience this year of 664,000, and that the audience on May 19 was just more than a quarter of a million.
“The BARB figures, he said, were based on overnight figures of those viewers who watched it live and online and were not so accurate because they did not include those who had recorded the show to watch it at a later date.
“He said: 'On Thursday, May 19, the audience was 257,000 when it was up against a special edition of Question Time broadcast from a prison.
“'The changes in technology and choice sweeping the broadcasting industry have meant audiences for many long-established television programmes have been affected’.”