Chancellor backs Pesto and Bradby in battle of the bongs
As our two main broadcasters choose to slug it out for dominance of the 10 o’Clock news slot, it is being hailed as the ‘battle of the bongs’. In one corner stands ITV’s boyish Tom Bradby, promoted to the anchor’s chair to add youthful flair to its revamped coverage. In the other, the BBC’s avuncular Huw Edwards who has been in the Broadcasting House hotseat since 2003.
But while Bradby has thus far only managed to make modest inroads into the BBC’s vastly superior 4 million ratings figures — he was estimated to have added 500,000 viewers since taking over last November — he has at least secured one highprofile defector.
I am told that the Chancellor, George osborne, now prefers to get his pre-bedtime news from the commercial broadcaster. ‘osborne has been watching News At Ten on ITV for the last couple of months,’ confirms a source close to osborne. ‘He prefers presenter Tom Bradby’s more informal and conversational style.’
osborne obviously does not want to cut his ties with the Beeb, though, as the source adds: ‘He hasn’t switched allegiance completely, as he still watches BBC news as well.’
ITV announced it would be relaunching its evening news programme last autumn, after I revealed during the summer that Bradby would be leaving his role as political editor to take up the anchor role. It was then able to boast of a coup when it managed to poach reporters robert Peston and Allegra stratton from its BBC rivals.
The Beeb responded in turn by announcing it would be extending its own programme’s coverage by 15 min- utes to give audiences ‘ even more news analysis and explanation’.
The hitherto friendly rivalry between the two shows turned ugly when Edwards chose to mock Bradby’s first week as presenter last November on Facebook, saying: ‘They just about managed two million . . . we were watched by 4.4 million. so it’s business as usual.’