The Newsroom

ITN News Channel

Straight forward, no nonsense reporting. (January 2017)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
CI
cityprod
newsman1 posted:
nwtv2003 posted:
WW Update posted:

What was their other attempt? Their majority share in Euronews?


I'm never sure why they took on EuroNews for a while, it's a channel that's never been big in the UK.

I think ITN came into the market five years too late. If it had launched on Sky and Analogue cable, I think there would have been a greater chance of success.

Worth noting at the time of closure more people watched ITV NC on DTT than Sky News, but it wasn't and was probably never going to pay the bills for ITV.


I don't think there was a huge number of satellite and cable viewers in the pre-digital days. Therefore, it wouldn't have been financially worthwhile for ITN to launch a news channel in the 90s.


Part of the issue was they tried to launch 2 services with the same brand. One on radio, one on TV. That was a mistake. The TV channel might have worked on it's own.
IS
Inspector Sands
It wasn't just a TV and Radio service, it was on multiple platforms. Ahead of its time in the pre-smartphone era. Having the same name for all the services isn't a problem, if you're everywhere (as was their intention) why do you need the word 'radio' etc on the name to distinguish them? BBC News and Sky News use their brands across platforms without issue

The radio version was just in DAB wasn't it, or did it not even make it to that? So even less audience than the TV channel. I seem to remember that the main issue with it was that it was mainly the same as the TV channel so didn't work that well.

Their London radio station News Direct used lots of TV audio at the time too which didn't go down too well I seem to remember
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 14 January 2017 9:50am
IT
itsrobert Founding member
newsman1 posted:
The ITN/ITV News Channel is no more but it left a brilliant legacy which still exists, i.e. overnight coverage of US presidential elections on ITV since 2004 (the year in which, I believe, the News Channel's US election coverage was simulcast on ITV). Furthermore, the 24-hour ITV national news service still exists - on the ITV News website.

They were doing overnight US Election coverage long before the ITN News Channel existed. Check out the clips on YouTube of the 1988 election coverage hosted by Alastair Burnet.
Nicky and LondonViewer gave kudos
NE
newsman1
itsrobert posted:
newsman1 posted:
The ITN/ITV News Channel is no more but it left a brilliant legacy which still exists, i.e. overnight coverage of US presidential elections on ITV since 2004 (the year in which, I believe, the News Channel's US election coverage was simulcast on ITV). Furthermore, the 24-hour ITV national news service still exists - on the ITV News website.

They were doing overnight US Election coverage long before the ITN News Channel existed. Check out the clips on YouTube of the 1988 election coverage hosted by Alastair Burnet.


I'm aware of that but ITV didn't have overnight coverage of the 1992, 1996 and 2000 US elections (except for the usual overnight summaries and the Morning News). ITV's takeover of the News Channel brought rolling coverage of US elections back to ITV, i.e. the simulcast of the 2004 coverage. This left a legacy whereby ITV has covered every US presidential election since.
IT
itsrobert Founding member
newsman1 posted:
itsrobert posted:
newsman1 posted:
The ITN/ITV News Channel is no more but it left a brilliant legacy which still exists, i.e. overnight coverage of US presidential elections on ITV since 2004 (the year in which, I believe, the News Channel's US election coverage was simulcast on ITV). Furthermore, the 24-hour ITV national news service still exists - on the ITV News website.

They were doing overnight US Election coverage long before the ITN News Channel existed. Check out the clips on YouTube of the 1988 election coverage hosted by Alastair Burnet.


I'm aware of that but ITV didn't have overnight coverage of the 1992, 1996 and 2000 US elections (except for the usual overnight summaries and the Morning News). ITV's takeover of the News Channel brought rolling coverage of US elections back to ITV, i.e. the simulcast of the 2004 coverage. This left a legacy whereby ITV has covered every US presidential election since.

The America Decides programme in 2004 was a production for ITV1 that was simulcast on the ITV News Channel. I don't think it was necessarily that the existence of the ITV News Channel precipitated the 2004 US election coverage. I think it's more likely that the 2004 election was the first since the 9/11 attacks, the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan and the Iraq War. By comparison, the elections in the 1990s arguably weren't as significant. It's the same principle as the UK election programmes - they are made for ITV but were also shown on the ITV News Channel when it existed.

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