THE LORD Chancellor, Lord Irvine, yesterday announced that the Government plans to publish a draft Freedom of Information Bill in the next few months. There is something deep in the British psyche which makes us turn to the BBC during times of crisis and during big events.". "Christmas is a short sprint which, from a financial point of view, ITV does not have the incentive to win."According to Mr Fletcher, the price of ITV's airtime falls by about 30 per cent over Christmas, compared with the start of December "ITV is also harmed by tradition. Advertisers know that by then shoppers have made most of their purchasing decisions. Research also shows that people don't like advertising as much at Christmas because of "consumerism overkill"."The ratings battle is a marathon which is not decided on one night of the year," says David Fletcher, a director of airtime buying agency CIA Medianetwork. This Christmas, it had 42.3 per cent of viewers, compared with 46 per cent last year. ITV's share was 29.4 per cent this year.But ITV can take some comfort from the fact that more people switched to it for the Queen's Christmas broadcast.ITV claims that the BBC out-spends it by two-and-a-half times over the Christmas period, because it puts a higher priority on winning viewers at this time of year, thus raising its average viewing share for the whole year.The BBC also knows it is shooting at an open goal because revenue from advertisers on ITV dries up after the first two weeks of December.

Last year it had 15.5 million viewers, a 70-per- cent share. However, BBC1's overall audience share slipped by nearly 4 per cent. For the second year running, Men Behaving Badly won the highest ratings on Christmas Day, attracting 13.9 million viewers, 59.9 per cent of the total audience. THE BBC yesterday claimed a comprehensive victory in the Christmas television ratings war, with seven out of the top 10 programmes. "You are talking about pounds 8,000 for quite an expensive radio programme, as opposed to pounds 80,000 for a television show, so radio will always be more flexible.". "But the key to commissioning shows and allowing quirky talent to come through is the passion of the individual producers - and we will make sure we respond to that."Mr Jackson, who handles a turnover of pounds 120m a year, said radio would remain a cheaper medium than television, and thus the "powerhouse" of British comedy.

"The BBC's development of the right programmes is crucial and I understand these worries," he said. "The kind of people who work in news probably listen to Radio 4 anyway and already know that radio is perhaps the most grown-up medium of all."Paul Jackson, the controller of BBC Entertainment and the man who is implementing the changes, said producers' fears are unfounded. "It is partly because some of them are fond of radio, and used to work there, but they should have the courage to let it work in its own way."Miss Smith pointed out the essential differences between news and comedy. She said: "There is a lot more television snobbery in the world of entertainment than there is with current affairs," she said. She added: "But the flip side of that is the danger that television will just swallow radio up."Another senior comedy producer with the BBC said he suspected the up- coming changes are really about increasing the power of television's presiding entertainment chiefs.He said: "They don't like the idea that any programmes will be developed without their involvement," he said. Everyone agrees that distinctiveness is the answer; it is just a question of how you safeguard that distinctiveness."Miss Smith, who will leave the BBC this month, agreed that action is necessary to stop talent going to rival television channels. But senior producer Sarah Smith is one of several programme makers who believe the Beeb is now tampering with the conditions that create good comedy."Radio ...