ITV News Channel

I'm well aware of this thank you, but there were no reports of masts affected by the powercut, and at the time of writing that is still the case. It is very unlikely that the powercut was responsible for the loss of a caller. Any suggestion that it was would have been random speculation.



Why? For having an opinion which is different to yours?

I watched the news breaking on The ITV News Channel and it was never made apparent whether mobile phone masts were affected or not - but if buildings and traffic lights were affected you would also group mobile phone masts as getting their electricity from the same means as these.

I have worked in the electricity field for many years now and know for a fact that a black out would also affect mobile phone masts and there were two contributing factors in the lost of phone call yesterday!

1) SOME mobile phone masts may have been operating correctly but the way they are arranged in a triangulation grid - the netowrk of masts has to decide which mast to use dependant on signal strength - triangulation suggests the word triangle and so say if only ONE of the three nearest mobile phone masts surrounding that person that got cut-off could have easily caused the mobile phone to cut off.

2) Due to the unexpected nature of the powercut the demand on the mobile phone network must have been at a premium with all the people trying to contact family and friends and trying to arrange an alternative method of getting home.

SO if it wasnt point one leading to the person being cut-off it must have been point two - which both were caused directly/indirectly by the powercut in London.

Simple as that!

RIGHT - that last post shut whataday up!

Also just to note ITV NC have just broken the news (first) about a small explosion near some British troops near Basra. Sky were a few minutes later - whereas BBC are once again showing some pre-recorded stuff about Alistair Campbell!

Is this like deja vu or what?

Or, they could have pressed the wrong button and cut her off, or any other number of reasons.

Anyway, on a positive note, ITVNC is doing quite well with its breaking news. Today's coverage of Campbell's resignation was almost seemless and way ahead of the BBC.

When ITV News gets its big revamp next year, I think it will benefit the channel greatly. They've done a good job, but the current presentation wasn't designed for a news channel.

I'm not sure what that's got to do with anything, what parts of the ITV News's presentation gets in the way of providing a good news channel?

The astons, clock etc are fine. Even the headline beds are OK. However, they are using a studio which was designed for a half hour programme, not a rolling news channel. The desk looks awkward when they've got a guest in. The flat, still backdrop is the same 24/7 and looks cheap and dull. ITN should be making great use of the real views of the newsrooms as a backdrop, and I think they will do next year.

As I say, it's really finding its feet, but it needs some adjustments presentation wise.