Bring back ITN: bring back authority to ITV News, with the ITN brand - Page 5

NG

noggin Founding member 1 November 2015 10:24am

It was put out to tender but according to the book "Channel 4: The Early Years and the Jeremy Isaacs Legacy"
By Dorothy Hobson, the contract was given to ITN under pressure from the IBA and Parliament - because Channel 4 News was to be taken in a different direction to ITV, lots of people though taking ITN was the worst possible idea, including the board of Channel 4.

How would taking ITN as the news contractor for Channel 4 prevent Channel 4 News from being taken in a different direction?

I believe the worry was that ITN - which was essentially at that point a company purely designed to make news for ITV - would run Channel Four News in a similar manner to their news output for ITV, and that it would be difficult to be culturally different when you were a small division in a larger organisation.

There was also a worry that Channel Four News would always be a poor relation in resourcing terms.

NJ

Neil Jones Founding member 1 November 2015 10:57am

newsman1 posted:

Neil Jones posted:

It was put out to tender but according to the book "Channel 4: The Early Years and the Jeremy Isaacs Legacy"
By Dorothy Hobson, the contract was given to ITN under pressure from the IBA and Parliament - because Channel 4 News was to be taken in a different direction to ITV, lots of people though taking ITN was the worst possible idea, including the board of Channel 4.

How would taking ITN as the news contractor for Channel 4 prevent Channel 4 News from being taken in a different direction?

Channel 4 News is brilliant.

Yes it might be brilliant now but it wasn't then.

Here's a link to the Google Book sample that I referred to in my previous post:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X6rdu_oU89wC&source=gbs_navlinks_s (click on View Sample) and read from printed page 103 and the section "A Kaleidoscope of Programmes". You can probably find the book in your local library if you want to read the other 250 odd pages.

NE

newsman1 1 November 2015 4:02pm

Neil Jones posted:

Yes it might be brilliant now but it wasn't then.

Here's a link to the Google Book sample that I referred to in my previous post:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X6rdu_oU89wC&source=gbs_navlinks_s (click on View Sample) and read from printed page 103 and the section "A Kaleidoscope of Programmes". You can probably find the book in your local library if you want to read the other 250 odd pages.

Pages 84 to 111 not available on the preview on my side.

In your opinion, why was Channel 4 News not good back then?

NE

newsman1 1 November 2015 4:05pm

dvboy posted:

Channel 4 News at Noon aired on S4C.

The main bulletin never did.

When News at Noon started on Channel 4 in 2003, many Welsh viewers could get Channel 4 on Freeview or Sky.

MA

Markymark 1 November 2015 7:07pm

newsman1 posted:

dvboy posted:

Channel 4 News at Noon aired on S4C.

The main bulletin never did.

When News at Noon started on Channel 4 in 2003, many Welsh viewers could get Channel 4 on Freeview or Sky.

Large chunks of SE Wales, (notably Cardiff and Newport) and the north coast had voted with their aerials
long before C4 and S4C came along, and were using English transmitters. C4 was available to a large number of Welsh homes from the outset in 1982.

PI

pip2 2 November 2015 12:03pm

I had a dream.... from 'bong' to 'tom'

[media:e9f2b268ec]http://up.metropol247.co.uk/pip/brad_ten%202.mp4[/media:e9f2b268ec]

SK

Skygeek 2 November 2015 12:06pm

Looks like a bong (of one kind of another) was certainly deployed there!

Is this your work, or that of whoever did the "THIS IS... THE NEWS... ON YOUR TEEEEELLLLLYYYYYYYY" thing from the car park era?

Last edited by Skygeek on 2 November 2015 12:21pm

PI

pip2 2 November 2015 12:10pm

Skygeek posted:

Looks like a bong (of one kind of another) was certainly deployed there!

Don't know what you you can possibly mean with that comment