5 News

The point of those 630 specials is that the title appears on the EPG I suppose.

Yes I wish Sian was on it a bit more. But C5 must also realise that whenever she’s written about in the press she’s always ‘Former BBC Breakfast star’ in the first mention and ‘5 News presenter’ in her second. Might be an idea for C5 to have some homegrown ‘stars’

To be fair, I always find Claudia-Liza Armah and Dani Sinha both extremely capable and likeable presenters.

Nobody is disputing that Claudia-Liza and Dani are capable presenters, but they don't have the pulling power to gain an audience in the same way Sian Williams has with her past being a lead presenter on Breakfast.

5 News really needs to be more like M6's news bulletins in France. Like 5 News, they do two main bulletins per day (including Sat and Sun), but there's set presenters for their lunchtime and evening bulletins from a virtual set with a bit more oomph in the production and news gathering.

Channel 5 are never going to invest in the news simply because it’s a PSB requirement which makes little to no money and only does mediocre ratings.

I don’t disagree Londonlite, but if well-known presenters gain bigger audience figures as simply as that, then why is Sky seemingly struggling at breakfast time? As much as the presenters like to think they’re crucial, it isn’t in the league of light entertainment ‘talent’. ‘The news is the star’ as Alistair Burnet apparently used to say. People tune in for the news, regardless of who is presenting it.

Obviously a Natasha or a Sian increase the profile of a programme like 5 News. But it doesn’t necessarily mean ratings will rise. Those other presenters are clearly not in Sian’s league, but neither does C5 seem to do much to promote them, or indeed anything to do with its news.

(Also pretty much all British TV news makes no money Jonwo. And against The Chase etc, 5 News is a solid half hour which I think doubles the audience of those Friends repeats at 1600. C5 is slightly unusual PSB-wise and I think the kids programmes are probably their primary bit of that, with news 2nd).

Channel 5 does make a big deal of Jeremy Vine which I assume adds to their PSB requirements for news and current affairs and I believe does rate decently for that slot.

It's tabloid with a right-wing skew, but as you say, it does the numbers unlike 5 News. C5 also promote the Vine show throughout the day.

I didn't realise the current incarnation of 5 News is the longest ever. Just look at how many attempts they've gone through. In my view, the original pacy theme was the best, along with the original newsroom studio.

However, that second set in 2000 also looked quite decent.

I think well known faces are part of the problem. Natasha and Sian are just ex-BBC and though of course both very capable neither bought the energy and distinctiveness that the relative newcomers of the early days did.

A good point, from the early days it was Rob Butler who for me was 5 News in the newsroom era.

It all comes down to cost. Channel 5 wanted to provide a distinctive news service when it launched and presumably paid a lot more for it. These days, the priorities of the channel have changed and I suspect they just want to do the minimum for the lowest price.

Only found out recently that he is now Rob Butler MP.