CraigWills' posts

The Sky News Thread

I suppose why was/is Kay Burley ‘off air’ for six month when the other two sanctioned given three months? Was it *just* because she acted in a worse manner? Was it because she’s the most high profile name and is a presenter not a reporter? Or maybe that’s because she’s off air for her notice period, so will in fact not return?

Sky’s statement came relatively quickly though and Stephen & Niall have said publicly that they were covering for three months each, Stephen adding on Twitter that he’s due back to weekend duties in June. So it doesn’t seem like plans are underway beyond June. Kay also said she looked forward to returning to Sky in her statement following Sky’s back in December.

However if Kay - as a result of her birthday bash or completely unconnected - was leaving Sky, it would seem a little daft to be off air for three months and then come back for three months before leaving for a rival channel. We’ve already seen Colin taken off air after it was announced he was joining GB News.

Dancing on Ice 2021

ITV seem to do this all the time, just hire whoever was the stand out of star was. Ashley Roberts got her DOI gig on the back off I’m a Celeb too. She also did Saturday Night Takeaway that year too and for a few years after, then Scarlett Moffat went on I’m a Celeb and then got Ashley’s role on Takeaway.

Tyne Tees & Border/Look North (NE & Cumbria)

Maybe the Carlisle office bought their own bunch for her! We need screenshots, lifetime kudos if anyone can get two screen grabs from Pam’s goodbye flowers.

…and finally

I’m incredibly sad that TV Forum is closing, going to miss this place (first time I’ve used on emoji - I think - first and last!)

Tyne Tees & Border/Look North (NE & Cumbria)

All bulletins are generally* split with separate output for Tyne Tees, and a separate bulletin or programme for Border. Both use the same studio/anchor or newsreader though, so one is always pre recorded, as live shortly before broadcast. For the main 6pm programme, it’s down to the news running order which one is recorded and which one is live. For shorter bulletins, particularly GMB/Lunch, I understand Border is typically always recorded. This is the same system used by the regions where there is sub-opt for East/West, North/South.

For Pam’s last programme, they remained wholly separate shows, the toned down goodbye on Border was recorded, Tyne Tees was live.

*They very occasionally do come together with a pan regional section, most notably during the pandemic when there was a 5pm press conference. So details of that could be carried on both programmes.

Piers Morgan to leave GMB

Let also remind ourselves the main reason why Piers lost his job was his comments on Monday 8th March, not the subsequent days programme when he stormed off set. While the Tuesday reaction wouldn’t have helped matters and only fanned the flames, creating more publicity and attention to the programme, it was Piers’ comments on mental health that were the big no, no here. Mental Health - quite rightly may I add - is such an important and sensitive subject that you have to tackle very carefully, for not only the person being discussed but also others watching who may be in similar situations. Piers missed the mark on that during Monday’s show. To the point where the meant health charity MIND were releasing public statements about the incident in which they described the comments as ‘concerning’ and the charity were also privately holding talks with ITV about it.

It’s also worth saying that it’s widely reported that Piers was actually offered the opportunity to apologise - privately and publicly, and I’m pretty sure Piers said that he refused to do this, therefore choosing to leave. Realistically, Alex Beresford has as zero to do with Piers leaving.

The Sky News Thread

Apparently the reason for 0100 hour being a replay of the midnight hour is to allow for COVID secure cleaning measures - allowing a deep clean of gallery and studio(s).
I noticed today during the early morning, they were running an hour behind from 2am because of the clock change, so the repeat airing of midnight was actually 2am BST, documentary slots at 3am/5am when usually 5am hour is a live bulletin then press preview repeat.

The Sky News Thread

Just to note Sam Washington is coming from studio 6 today on the 10-2 shift.



I must agree that that Sky News could do more on the Sky Catch Up service, even if the latest Sky News Radio bulletin was available on demand for people to listen via Sky boxes or the TOH sequences could be altered to be a more rounded mini bulletin too. Also just the general programmes too, perhaps not every hours needs to be available (Although Global have literally every hour free to catch up on, even though it’s perhaps just a similar mix of songs and chat each hour of most days) but certainly Sky News at Ten, Press Preview, The News Hour at 5, All Out Politics, Ian King Live, at least the 7am hour of Breakfast. Surely it wouldn’t be too much work to do this. There is a limited Sky news section on the catch up section but it’s hidden way pretty well. Whereas they could be promoting it a lot more and getting people watching on demand, which may also increase awareness and viewers to the main channel.

The Sky News Thread

I have wondered if a “Sky News Live Events” channel would be a good idea long term. For things such as this but also press conferences in full, certain parliamentary matters and such; things that perhaps don’t need to be carried in full on the main channel. I mean the cost of this is an obvious caveat, but it could even be a pop up service, that simulcasts the main Sky News Channel when there’s nothing to carry live. And that might be a good way to ‘sell’ the service as 24/7 channel that simulcasts Sky News but breaks away to show live events.

I do sometimes find myself tuned into Sky News and regular shows such as the last hour of the weekday breakfast show or Ian King Live have been replaced for the entire duration. And while this is done when there’s a clear interest, I do also wonder if there’s a significant audience who would rather stick with those regular shows and just drop into longer news events when something of interest has been said.

Tyne Tees & Border/Look North (NE & Cumbria)

I’m glad they kept Tyne Tees & Lookaround separate tonight for Pam’s final show. On Tyne Tees, we had 15 minutes devoted to Pam’s goodbye but this may have been a little bit much for Border, where Pam’s been presenting only 12 years compared to being a regular face on Tyne Tees for 32 years.

It would be good if someone has recorded Lookaround (Tyne Tees was live tonight as predicted), I’d be interested to see how they covered it.

Border have posted this article which has a video report at the end.
https://www.itv.com/news/border/2021-03-26/pam-royle-presents-final-programme-at-itv-border-after-more-than-a-decade

Tyne Tees & Border/Look North (NE & Cumbria)

Pam did the south version of North East Tonight for about 3 years before Tyne Tees & Border merged, so I think actually Pam and Ian have been a partnership together for about 15 years.

The Sky News Thread

I’d be more concerned with my father undermining every policy I had, if I were in the Prime Minister’s shoes rather than cheap shots at journalists.
Oh and the fact that 125,000+ have died.

As for the new slogan that’s appeared I’m not sure they really achieve much, as mentioned ITV News are running a similar slogan. Who’s it aimed at? As I’m not sure it convinces those who have an unwarranted dislike to the main stream media to tune in and those who are already there watching you’d hope would already appreciate that’s the news is independent.