TV
That's a fair point but if you're an doing an entertainment show for London and the one place you aren't is probably the biggest entertainment event going on in the city that night then I probably then it's worth throwing a bit of resource at or at least acknowledging. The audience watching London Live won't care if the BBC and ITV are also there and vice versa they just want to see it on the channel they are watching plus the direct is Guy Ritchie and he's pretty London plus it's based on a British TV show and I think a chunk of it was filmed in London. It should have been right up London Live's street. I assume they weren't given access due to no-one really watching the channel. I think more people might be interested in that premiere than inserts from Africa Fashion Week which would feels more like a package or a weekend news feature than an outside broadcast (with a dodgy signal). I think basically they cover whatever the hell they can get into or someone can talk about these days so they can fill time.
London Live
Surely it's better for them to use their scarce resources to cover different stuff than is featured on BBC London News and ITV News London?
That's a fair point but if you're an doing an entertainment show for London and the one place you aren't is probably the biggest entertainment event going on in the city that night then I probably then it's worth throwing a bit of resource at or at least acknowledging. The audience watching London Live won't care if the BBC and ITV are also there and vice versa they just want to see it on the channel they are watching plus the direct is Guy Ritchie and he's pretty London plus it's based on a British TV show and I think a chunk of it was filmed in London. It should have been right up London Live's street. I assume they weren't given access due to no-one really watching the channel. I think more people might be interested in that premiere than inserts from Africa Fashion Week which would feels more like a package or a weekend news feature than an outside broadcast (with a dodgy signal). I think basically they cover whatever the hell they can get into or someone can talk about these days so they can fill time.
TV
While BBC London did the red carpet with Guy Ritchie and Henry Cavill and the duo did a studio interview with ITV News London.
I assume they were denied access (unless they weren't interested in it but I find that hard to believe). They're clearly very low on the list of outlets these days which is a shame. They used to live from all the big premieres and get loads of big names.
I spotted Marc on the BBC too recently and he came across really well. Another ex-LL person I've seen recently is Simon Thompson who has popped up on 5 News and a few other places too. I never watch Arise but great news about Gavin too. Good to see people doing well off the back of LL at least.
Tuned in back in to Live from London for a few minutes again and saw the interview with the comedy troupe. Awful interview on both sides. At least the 'going out' show is often so bad now that it makes you want to turn the TV off and go and do anything else than watch it. So, it kind of works but not in the way it was meant to?
London Live
Just turned LL on for five minutes to see if they were at the Man From UNCLE premiere but no, they're at Africa Fashion Week, they've chatted (boringly) to a former reality show contestant who will be singing and there's some wacky comedy group from the Camden Fringe coming up. Even the people presenting look bored. Frightfully posh and deathly dull.
While BBC London did the red carpet with Guy Ritchie and Henry Cavill and the duo did a studio interview with ITV News London.
I assume they were denied access (unless they weren't interested in it but I find that hard to believe). They're clearly very low on the list of outlets these days which is a shame. They used to live from all the big premieres and get loads of big names.
I spotted Marc on the BBC too recently and he came across really well. Another ex-LL person I've seen recently is Simon Thompson who has popped up on 5 News and a few other places too. I never watch Arise but great news about Gavin too. Good to see people doing well off the back of LL at least.
Tuned in back in to Live from London for a few minutes again and saw the interview with the comedy troupe. Awful interview on both sides. At least the 'going out' show is often so bad now that it makes you want to turn the TV off and go and do anything else than watch it. So, it kind of works but not in the way it was meant to?
Last edited by TVGBs on 8 August 2015 11:53am
TV
London Live
Just turned LL on for five minutes to see if they were at the Man From UNCLE premiere but no, they're at Africa Fashion Week, they've chatted (boringly) to a former reality show contestant who will be singing and there's some wacky comedy group from the Camden Fringe coming up. Even the people presenting look bored. Frightfully posh and deathly dull.
TV
Aha. Thanks makes perfect sense.
London Live
LBC is made up of two distinct services, the FM station is a national phone-in station (nationally on DAB) with local travel news, while the AM station which Mark mentions is a low budget local rolling news station presented by Global Radio journalists. It does what it says on the tin with a mix of national and local news, with travel every ten minutes.
Aha. Thanks makes perfect sense.
TV
Yes, it could be, very much so. But that costs money and money/manpower they don't appear to be willing to invest. I believe LBC is also on FM on 97.3 in London though? And that summer of events programming kind of fizzled out a bit didn't it?
London Live
Interesting to note that LBC London News now has 513,000 listeners, according to the latest RAJAR figures - putting them ahead of FM stations including BBC London 94.9, XFM and Capital Xtra despite only being on AM and DAB.
This is pretty impressive given that they're not a high-budget operation at all. I think this shows a clear appetite for straightforward local news and information in London - and further evidence that news should and could be a ratings-winner for London Live if they did it properly.
This is pretty impressive given that they're not a high-budget operation at all. I think this shows a clear appetite for straightforward local news and information in London - and further evidence that news should and could be a ratings-winner for London Live if they did it properly.
Yes, it could be, very much so. But that costs money and money/manpower they don't appear to be willing to invest. I believe LBC is also on FM on 97.3 in London though? And that summer of events programming kind of fizzled out a bit didn't it?
TV
SuperDave, you're absolutely right but on tube strike night would it not have been better to delay the broadcast until maybe 8pm, benefit from the tube strike news coverage opportunities then play out the tidied up debate so it just felt smoother?
And a great advert for Tesco Bank disguised as editorial too this week. It seems so much stuff they do these days is straight off a press release/surveys/polls etc with 'local' stats and there's far too little actual journalism. What there is pretty unremarkable more often than not.
London Live
It doesn't take much sense or experience to know how other channels handle this kind of thing as a live broadcast. If they knew (and they did, well in advance) that it was going to be a live broadcast then they should have worked that in the event and paused for breaks. It had the feeling of the TV part of it being an a distant thought, like an elephant in the room. I think that probably shows how important to ESI Media the TV part of it is really.SuperDave, you're absolutely right but on tube strike night would it not have been better to delay the broadcast until maybe 8pm, benefit from the tube strike news coverage opportunities then play out the tidied up debate so it just felt smoother?
And a great advert for Tesco Bank disguised as editorial too this week. It seems so much stuff they do these days is straight off a press release/surveys/polls etc with 'local' stats and there's far too little actual journalism. What there is pretty unremarkable more often than not.
TV
London Live
So, on tube strike night they are showing a 90 minute 'Who Should Be Our Mayor?' show instead of a news programme? I guess at least they can discuss the strike, which they have done, but still. Another strike that has a massive affect on the Capital and they fail to reflect that in their programming. If tonight was the night you considered looking at London Live rather than BBC or ITV local news you probably wouldn't be overly impressed. The debate would have been better off being recorded and played out as live from 8 (or even 7) as it is far less immediately important in news time.
TV
Agreed but they don't have the staff for that. They barely have enough to do what they need to already.
Maybe they sold the stools to 'further reduce their losses something something something blah blah blah'?
London Live
Why is there no news bar?
It would be useful to have some sort of on screen graphic showing the underground lines and if there are delays, and also which roads are closed etc. On screen constantly, updated in real time.
It would be useful to have some sort of on screen graphic showing the underground lines and if there are delays, and also which roads are closed etc. On screen constantly, updated in real time.
Agreed but they don't have the staff for that. They barely have enough to do what they need to already.
Maybe they sold the stools to 'further reduce their losses something something something blah blah blah'?
TV
He's not the problem, it's the content/lack of content/quality of content.
There was so much they could have done to provide great coverage for the tube story but they didn't. From in-house staff to Standard journalists to UGC pieces and in studio discussions or so many other options but they didn't. New chairs or different lightbulbs won't make his polished turd glisten any brighter - and they're rapidly running out of polish and elbow grease.
London Live
That said, Baxter did a reasonsable job - even standing to present the travel and weather segments before walking to the desk to deliver the headlines.
He's not the problem, it's the content/lack of content/quality of content.
There was so much they could have done to provide great coverage for the tube story but they didn't. From in-house staff to Standard journalists to UGC pieces and in studio discussions or so many other options but they didn't. New chairs or different lightbulbs won't make his polished turd glisten any brighter - and they're rapidly running out of polish and elbow grease.
TV
There was also a plug for the 'breakfast' show at 8.30 the following morning with all the latest on the tube strike. If I was them I would have moved it earlier and extended it to try and gain some news ground but I guess that would be asking too much.
London Live
Live From London continues to underwhelm. Just turned it on for a few minutes and the coverage of the Ant-man premiere was awful - these used to be a strong point for them. Two interviews of no real substance and terrible quality footage from the OB link. Followed up by a bit of an awkward interview with a 'comedian'.There was also a plug for the 'breakfast' show at 8.30 the following morning with all the latest on the tube strike. If I was them I would have moved it earlier and extended it to try and gain some news ground but I guess that would be asking too much.
TV
"Lebedevs have ploughed £111m into Independent, Standard and TV station: Russian moguls invested £18m more last year as London Live struggled to pull in audiences, latest figures reveal"
London Live
More less-than-good press for London Live in the Media Guardian today - http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/06/lebedevs-independent-standard-london-live."Lebedevs have ploughed £111m into Independent, Standard and TV station: Russian moguls invested £18m more last year as London Live struggled to pull in audiences, latest figures reveal"