TYNE Tees programmes will get less airtime under a new charter for commercial television.

Regional output will be reduced from nine-and-three-quarters hours a week to eight-and-a-half hours.

But the station has been promised better slots for its shows in the charter agreed with the Independent Television Commission.

Tyne Tees' late night regional news programme will be included in the networked News at Ten, which goes out at peak viewing time.

The commission says the new charter will secure a "sustainable future for ITV regional programming'' by ensuring its "quality and accessibility''.

And it has pledged that more than 50 per cent of the programme investment made by ITV companies will be outside London.

The charter has been welcomed by the station's controller of programmes, Graeme Thompson, who said: "It means we don't spread ourselves quite so thinly at the outer reaches of the schedule.''

Mr Thompson said the late news was being shown at at 11.30pm or 11.40pm but the station felt strongly that local and national news should be next to each other.

The station plans to axe its lunchtime magazine, North-East Today, at the end of the year, and use the airtime for other programmes.

However, presenters Pam Royle and Claire Montgomery, who host the shows from studios in Newcastle and Billingham region simultaneously, will appear in other slots.

Tyne Tees plans to trim some bulletins and concentrate less on programmes that are screened around midnight.

The ITC says regional output is central to its public service commitments and plans to to invest an extra £1m in regional programmes screened at peak or near-peak times, a move welcomed by Tyne Tees.

The ITC also plans to establish regional advisory groups in bid to strengthen regional accountability.