US Presidential Election 2016

ITV News will do their usual coverage from their green screen studio in London with a variation on their ITV National News background. They will have a partnership with NBC News as they always do, so this means a reporter will be based at 30 Rockefeller Plaza as was the case in 2012. Why would ITV alter a reasonable format that has played well for them in 2008 and 2012.

As well as the reporter at 30 Rock, ITV's partnership with NBC also usually involves dipping in and out of the live NBC coverage.

I sort of wonder why ITV bother really? I mean, anyone watching in the UK is likely to be watching the BBC or one of the US news channels, if they've got access to them. What do ITV bring to the party? I suppose you could say the same about a UK general election, but clearly ITV have a duty and responsibility to cover that, but US elections? Not so much.

ITV basically functions as 'NBC UK' for the overnight coverage, with opt outs to ITV News for analysis from people that UK viewers will recognise

Of course NBC news has an EX itv employee working for them, so you may be forgive in think it was ITV full time.

Well, they didn't do it for a while - in the nineties they stopped doing it completely and didn't cover them in 1992, 1996 or 2000. 2004 was certainly the first time they'd done it for a while (obviously they had a news channel at that point as well).

I guess they have to have staff on duty to cover it for the news bulletins so they may as well broadcast live while they're about it. Gets a few more brownie points for them.

I wish that's how it actually did work. I for one would love to watch the full NBC coverage in HD on ITV, with short opt-outs from ITV during the ad breaks (although even that's not strictly necessary as the NBC feed comes with its own break-filler coverage).

From what I saw in 2012, it was very much an ITV programme, with them jumping fairly inelegantly in and out of NBC coverage.

But I have a feeling that US election coverage is an essential requirement of ITV's public service status, so it may be they have to produce a proper programme.

ITV have to bother of they want to come across as a national news broadcaster. They are also Public Service Broadcasters, so covering a very important international event would come under their remit. So as with everything ITV do with news now, they do the bare minimum and keep Ofcom and the regulators happy.

ITV 2015 election and 2016 referendum coverage came from same set with subtle adjustments. 2015 election had to be their laziest ever with the opening title sequence just a rehash of their ITV National news titles and music.

ITV since 1999 have cared less and less about news coverage. ITN on the other hand had great respect for news. ITN still make the news for ITV, but since their name is a blink and you miss it end at credits, ITV News have fallen down hill for the last two decades.

I assume you're referring to Deborah Turness. By the way, the position of ITV national news editor is an ITN job.

It would have been much worse if ITN had lost the Channel 3 news contract. The ITN newsreaders and reporters on ITV are still worthy of respect. They have acted professionally at all times.

By the way, the ITV takeover of the breakfast franchise means that there is a round-the-clock national news operation with the title "ITV News" on Channel 3 (the legal name for the ITV Network).

But in may ways they do more than they used to - as I say, they stopped doing the US elections for many years, and in the nineties they didn't do live budget coverage for a few years either.

Close its Bill Neely