Reports of the BBC's decease have been greatly exaggerated.(Independent Television; British Broadcasting Corporation Ltd.)(Brief Article)

I hesitate to disagree with the esteemed media editor of The Times but then I saw lots of agency people jumping on a story in Tuesday's paper headlined "ITV overtakes BBC for upmarket audience" and realised that nobody is infallible. "ITV as masterly as the next man at spinning figures to its own advantage" would have been a more appropriate headline.

The Times said that "for the first time in its history, ITV has attracted more viewers from professional and managerial backgrounds than its public service rival BBC1." During the first six weeks of this year, according to the story, ITV averaged 1,044,000 ABC1 viewers for each quarter-hour period, day and night, while BBC1 managed only 1,008,000 viewers from the same professional audience.

This, of course, was a cue for broadcast directors all over London to hail ITV's return to glory and the BBC's rigor mortis. The heroism, heartbreak and hatchet-faced mothers of Popstars and the seemingly unstoppable Millionaire have addressed ITV's lowest common denominator problem, they said. Beefed up sports coverage and the Premier League coming this year would help 1TV continue to beat BBC on upmarket younger viewers, they said. Crisis at the BBC and evidence of the new, homogeneous television landscape, they said. Very good news for advertisers, they said.

More measured observers with access to the same audience figures and a canny eye for standard ...