BBC spending on new TV shows has fallen, says Ofcom

Torchwood, starring John Barrowman, was created in 2006

BBC spending on new TV programmes has fallen by 13% in real terms in the last five years, media watchdog Ofcom says.

Spending dropped from £1.42bn to £1.24bn between 2005 to 2009. BBC One spending fell by 9% and BBC Two by 15% in that period.

The other terrestrial channels - ITV1, Channel 4 and Five - spent 20% less on new programmes in those five years.

But, as a proportion of their overall revenue, spending by the three channels increased from 43% to 52%.

ITV1, Channel 4 and Five have all suffered from a fall-off in advertising revenues in recent years.

The figures in Ofcom's annual report on public service broadcasting cover new programmes made for broadcast nationally.

Spending on programmes made specifically for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions was down by a third between 2005 and 2009.

Catch-up services

Jana Bennett, director of BBC Vision, said Ofcom's figures for 2008 and 2009 showed spending on BBC TV programmes was "broadly stable" and acknowledged that "high levels of quality" had been maintained.

"Despite an ongoing efficiency programme, the BBC continues to be the cornerstone of the production industry, ploughing savings back in to high-quality programming," she added.

Ofcom says that, although people are watching more TV than ever, viewing of the five main channels has slipped.

In 2005, 58% of people would regularly tune in but that figure has dropped by 3%.

Ofcom said the slight decline could be explained by a change in how people access TV, by watching online, using catch-up services or recording programmes.

It said the number of people using the BBC iPlayer had risen from 30.8 million in January 2009 to 68.2 million a year later.