GMB Regional News Opt-Out (Concept)

Hello everyone,

As a viewer of GMB, I noticed that the hand off to the regional news is quite inconsistent. Sometimes they do a camera shot out and keep the graphics on screen, sometimes they use the GMB bumper screen, sometimes they use the larger GMB logo and take off the clock and flipper.

What I have created is an idea which I think would look really nice in the programme if incorporated correctly and timings worked out well.

Apologies for the poor background - I had to slap on the text using ITV Reem font and set it to white with a lowered opacity to try and make the text look like it isn't there. If anyone has the background footage they use, it would be a help to me.

Take a look and let me know what you think.



In addition, I created one with text on screen showing which region the viewer would see and where the content is from:



For those interested, below is a timeline of how the opt-out would work:

1. Presenters hand off ('Now for the news, travel & weather where you are. See you in a moment!')
2. Regional News bumper is shown and all graphics are off screen
3. Changes to local stations (which are showing the content from the ITV in London)
4. Wipe on to presenter, who begins reporting the news

I'll get the negatives out of the way first. It would be rather difficult for this to work in practise. Whilst you have acknowledged that the timings would need to be perfect, in reality, it would be difficult to pull off without some sort of jump in the video, which hinders the seamless nature of the concept. However, this could be maintained with the use of a still image, although I'd also recommend you use some artistic discretion in deciding whether or not a still image would work with the other moving elements.

The only other issues that I have (which I will also admit is rather nit-picky) is the alignment of 'Regional' and 'News'. By the looks of things though, you have tried to incorporate the social media logos from the background footage which would explain the alignment problem.

However, those two points aside, I think it is a great concept and it is nice to see it executed to such a high standard. With some minor tweaks, I would happily rate this 5/5. As it is, I'd still give it 4.5/5. I look forward to seeing this develop further, plus any other mocks you have in the future.

It's a good idea though whether it would work in practice I don't know.

Of course GMB tried out a seamless transition at the start with Ben introducing the regional presenter at the start of the bulletin.

It's a nice idea but in reality, it'll be hard cuts in the opts. I remember them trying to pre-record regionalised intros for the different regions but dropping it since it became messy.

Pretty much what the others said - nice idea but tricky to achieve seemlessly.

Good idea in practice, but one issue would be that there would have to be a separate one for STV I would imagine.

I don't think this would be an issue because although the Scottish bulletin is produced by STV, it's paid for by ITV Breakfast and is therefore effectively an ITV bulletin. However I'm not sure they would use "ITV Regional News" as it would break the branding 'rules' for their ITV News brand.

Thank you for the feedback everyone! I appreciate it very much.

Here's another idea that I've created. It fits in with the TOTH headlines style. It would cut a lot easier because it's not a moving background like my previous design. However, I'm not sure how I feel about it because it doesn't look like the other bumpers that they use.

I'll see if I can incorporate a static image into the normal style - I had an idea of it zooming in temporarily and then slowly coming to a stop, then they opt out. The image could be a shot of BBC Television Centre, since that's where the London section of the show is live from.

Here's Version 2 of my idea:

That could work technically better as there is a brief point you could switch seamlessly to the regional feed. To be fair when ITV briefly integrated regional headlines into the national bulletins (15 years ago now) it was alot more seamless than it has been on the BBC over the last 20 years.