The Newsroom

ITV News

Split from ITV News 2013 Rebrand

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
AN
all new Phil
Do ITV actually lose any sleep over losing out to the BBC at 10pm? There’s no money to be made out of the news, and they’ve demonstrated time and time again that they have no real commitment to sticking religiously to this time slot. The only thing that keeps it at 10 is the lack of something to put in its place (and the pressure to deliver ratings for anything they do put there).

I always thought the idea of having the Friday night news later was a good one (when they branded it as ITV Weekend News).
BR
Brekkie
Drama definitely benefitted from the move to 9pm but no doubt comedy benefitted from having the Nine act as a buffer between early prime time and edgier content.
BP
Bob Paisley
all new Phil posted:
Do ITV actually lose any sleep over losing out to the BBC at 10pm? There’s no money to be made out of the news, and they’ve demonstrated time and time again that they have no real commitment to sticking religiously to this time slot. The only thing that keeps it at 10 is the lack of something to put in its place (and the pressure to deliver ratings for anything they do put there).

I always thought the idea of having the Friday night news later was a good one (when they branded it as ITV Weekend News).


I don't know what it's like these days, but I was once told that the middle ad break for News at Ten was the single most lucrative ad break in the entire ITV schedule. NAT got a slightly more 'upmarket' audience than the rest of ITV's output, which was very attractive to high end companies (car companies etc). So, back in the day, there was a lot of money to be made out of news. Like I say, I don't know if that's still the case anymore.
MA
Markymark
Bob Paisley posted:
all new Phil posted:
Do ITV actually lose any sleep over losing out to the BBC at 10pm? There’s no money to be made out of the news, and they’ve demonstrated time and time again that they have no real commitment to sticking religiously to this time slot. The only thing that keeps it at 10 is the lack of something to put in its place (and the pressure to deliver ratings for anything they do put there).

I always thought the idea of having the Friday night news later was a good one (when they branded it as ITV Weekend News).


I don't know what it's like these days, but I was once told that the middle ad break for News at Ten was the single most lucrative ad break in the entire ITV schedule. NAT got a slightly more 'upmarket' audience than the rest of ITV's output, which was very attractive to high end companies (car companies etc). So, back in the day, there was a lot of money to be made out of news. Like I say, I don't know if that's still the case anymore.


I think you're right. I do recall back in the late 70s, Fiat buying the entire break for their famous 'Built by Robots' advert.

I stumbled across a newspaper cutting yesterday from about 1984 asking the rhetorical question, will BBC News ever match the standard set by ITN. I'll try and scan it, (it's an awkward size and shape to stick in an A4 scanner).
It's got a table of audience figures showing ITN in a 2:1 audience favour lunchtime and early evening. Interestingly the BBC 9pm news was 8.2m and NaT was 8.6m, a far narrower gap than I recall.

Anyway, how times change eh !!!
:-(
A former member
The member requested removal of this post
BR
Brekkie
Don't know if ITV have lost their calendar but a full hour of local and national news scheduled next Monday despite the bank holiday.
LL
London Lite Founding member
Brekkie posted:
Don't know if ITV have lost their calendar but a full hour of local and national news scheduled next Monday despite the bank holiday.


Making up for lost minutes during the World Cup?
AN
Andrew Founding member
London Lite posted:
Brekkie posted:
Don't know if ITV have lost their calendar but a full hour of local and national news scheduled next Monday despite the bank holiday.


Making up for lost minutes during the World Cup?

I don’t think there is a requirement to do that.
BF
BFGArmy
noggin posted:
Luke posted:
yeah I don't get the 'interesting' interpretation either - people are ultimately tuning in for the content rather than the talking head reading the links. It's a news bulletin. Good to see Bradby hoist by his own petard - find him unwatchable personally.


Afraid I have to agree. The current ITV News at Ten 'Bradby' scripting style is usually just bad, and in some cases plain crass. You can overdo the 'personality' or 'conversational' elements in news writing, and ITN are currently crossing the line for many of us. I don't go to the pub for my news, nor do I want 'bloke in the pub' scripting. .


That said the nadir of ITV News for me still has to be that 2006-08 period which was full of tabloidy headlines and melodrama - as the clip below shows. You had accomplished news presenters like Nina Hossain having to go on about 'The Enemy within' and 'burger and chips' and Geraint yelling absolute rubbish like 'Timetable to Terror' and 'Bye Bye Beckham' and Charlie Brooker's description that the lunchtime news with Katie Derham and Alistair Stewart around then felt like 'you'd been called into their office for a bollocking' wasn't a million miles off the mark - as good as I think both Katie and Alistair are as newscasters

AN
all new Phil
Agree that the teal era was pretty horrendous. Over the top drama (complete with unnecessary whooshes too!).
WW
WW Update
RDJ posted:
noggin posted:
I can't see this experiment lasting for too much longer though - it's plainly not working in bringing in viewers in their droves.


I can't help but agree. News at Ten was born for the need of providing an alternative in depth analysis of the days news. This is exactly how it should be and what viewers are going to want just before turning to bed.

The likes of Trevor McDonald, Alistair Burnet and Sandy Gall delivered just that and with authority. That's how News at Ten grew in popularity.

They made the mistake by turning it into just any other bulletin in 2001 and in 2013. I can see what they aimed to achieve by putting Tom at the helm to make it stand out differently, but it's taken it the wrong way and turned it into a trashy tabloid style show. I like his style but I just don't think it's a style suited for News at Ten.

I tend to think Tom and Mary should swap and having Mary, Julie and Alistair front News at Ten with an authoritative style again would improve the ratings somewhat.


But surely there's room for a populist newscast with an approach fundamentally different from the BBC's relatively high-minded style. ITV is apparently going after a different -- slightly downmarket -- segment of the audience, and if that gives viewers a genuine choice (in terms of both content and presenting styles), is this really a bad thing?
AN
all new Phil
Disagree that they’re going downmarket. If anything they’re aiming up. The whole point of the changes was to make it more analytical than just straight news. A show with regular input and analysis from Robert Peston, Allegra Stratton and others is anything but downmarket.

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