The report, by former Financial Times editor Richard Lambert and which was commissioned by secretary of state for culture, media and sport Tessa Jowell, recommended that the BBC should publish more information about the channel's performance and broad details of the financial relationship with BBC World.
In its response published yesterday, the BBC said that unlike its commercial rivals its annual report already contained information about the fully allocated cost of its main channels, including BBC News 24.
However, the BBC said it would respond to Lambert's recommendations by providing an annual breakdown of News 24's costs, splitting them out into its production and its regional and central costs.
The BBC bristled at Lambert's suggestion that News 24 was expensive compared with its rival.
"Lambert states that it is not possible to make firm comparisons between BBC News 24 and its commercial rivals. Despite this, he draws the conclusion that News 24 is expensive relative to Sky News, though he acknowledges the lack of robust and comparable data from Sky," the BBC's response said.
The issue at the centre of the cost question is that News 24 is estimated to cost £50m, while Sky claims costs of just £35m. The BBC claims that the £35m is much lower than the true cost of Sky News, which some analysts expect to be around £45m.
The BBC continued to hit out at Sky in its response, saying the extra expense is accounted for by original programming, such as 'Hard Talk', and comprehensive international newsgathering, neither of which, the BBC said, Sky has.
The corporation was happy to remind everyone that Lambert referred to its treatment of news as being similar to that of a broadsheet newspaper, whereas Sky's was closer in style to the mid-market tabloid, the Daily Mail. It is because of this, the BBC said, that its News 24 service has gone on to become more highly regarded by opinion formers than its downmarket rival.
In a bid to discredit its rival, the BBC said it would aim to place greater emphasis on reporting accurate stories faster, because it was more important for it, as a public service broadcaster, to be accurate than it is for its rivals.
It said that, although being first with news is the "primary purpose of any 24-hour news channel", its reputation would be "badly damaged if News 24 broke news that was not true".
The BBC stood its ground against Lambert's suggestion that News 24 should be given a higher profile on the BBC's terrestrial channels. The broadcaster revealed that in the event of major news stories breaking, BBC Daytime "has been commissioning branded news specials from News 24 for the past two years", it said in its report.
However, it said it has also increased its production of News 24-branded output on its terrestrial stations for major events such as the US mid-term elections and the French presidential election, which are produced by News 24 and trailed from BBC One. News 24 will provide coverage for BBC One if war breaks out in Iraq.
News 24's business coverage is also set to be shaken up, as the broadcaster admitted that it needs to be clearer about the audience it serves. It is to replace its 'Business Today' programme, which is aired at 8.30pm to programme later in the evening, when links to New York would be stronger.
Interactivity will also be placed higher up the channel's agenda to make it more creative and responsive to breaking news events.
The BBC also responded to criticism Lambert made of the role of BBC governors. Lambert suggested their role was perfunctory and that they needed to publish more.
The BBC hit back by saying the governors were very closely involved in, and that vigorous debate took place about, News 24. Nevertheless, the BBC agreed to look at adopting measurable targets for the channel when it reviews the channel's objectives later this year.
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