Award Winning Granada News - Your Views

I turned over to London Tonight, what was going on was important, but I didn't really want to sit through thirty minutes of it.

I didn't disagree with the Liverpool coverage last year, that was different, but this, the last ten minutes would have been more appropiate.

News woman - I'm neither from Preston or a cricket fan.

Ben - It wasn't the whole programme. The woman standing in for Lucy did an extensive news bulletin. It looked like the last 15 mins to me (sorry didn't have a stop watch on it!!!!!!!!!) but I agree it should have been the last 10. Maybe they were shifting the coverage so that they could carry live coverage of Flintoff addressing the crowd rather than miss that.

I thought it was overkill - NWT's approached seemed more balanced I thought...

I put this on the NWT thread as well but a reporter called Alistair Mann was on Match Of The Day on Saturday.
Is that the same as the Presenter on Granada?
If so, has he left Granada?
If he hasn't left how can he work for both companies?
If it is the same person he's a better commentator than Presenter. He's awful as a Presenter.

Yes it was Alistair Mann on Match of the Day
No he hasn't left Granada, well he was on air Friday night talking about Robbie Fowler going back to Liverpool.

There's probably a chance that he is freelance, though he is contracted to Granada, he is probably allowed to do other work if you get my drift. I think Anna Thomas is a freelance now as she was reporting on BBC News 24 the other day.

The best North West freelancer at the moment is probably Stuart Hall who appears on BBC Radio Five Live, Channel M News on a Monday and does the odd thing for Granada.

Not sure if this is the right place to put this but I noticed when looking at the ITV website that Granada cover quite a lot of North Wales according to the map.

http://www.itvregions.com/

I knew that North Wales was a crossover area for HTV/Granada but didnt realise that it was such a big area that Granada claim as their territory not HTV. I also know that most people in North Wales watch Granada rather than HTV and a large percentage of the population up there are from the North West of England.

Does Granada News feature many reports from North Wales?

I'm rather dubious about that map actually. From memory, the weather on Granada doesn't feature *that* much of Wales. I have, however, heard the odd report mention "North Wales".

North Wales reports do seem fairly rare -- it seems to take a connection to the north west of England in order for it to be included. Mind you I remember a high profile Anglesey murder featuring on Granada a while ago, which was odd.

From when the weather map was a little more specific [and there was no forecaster]
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/tvdragon/grw2001.jpg

The ITV sales map is a little more accurate regarding trasmission area
http://www.itvsales.com/itv/export/download/pdf/granada.pdf

Not sure how far into the north east a digital picture from Winter Hill is practical -- if not far, then it will all be a little irrelevant in two years.

Ta for that. So Denbighshire, Flintshire and Conwy are actually Granada rather than HTV. Interesting that HTV have offices in Colwyn Bay and Wrexham which are in Granada's patch. Colwyn Bay in itself is an odd choice as its a small seaside town!

I think Colwyn Bay is just a central-ish northern town -- the National Assembly is there too.

As for the counties you mentioned, they are really an overlap area. If anything it is more HTV's patch by the old IBA geographical definitions -- the fact Granada still broadcast and cover there is a cultural/historical throwback, and probably an annoyance to them, particularly since I've never seen Welsh companies advertise on the station.

The other pdf maps in the menu might be of use
http://www.itvsales.com/itv/export/itvsales/advertising/regionmaps/articles/walesandwest.html

I used to have a relation who lived in Rhyl, and it was wall to wall Granada Tonight and BBC North West Tonight there.

Only a poor reception of HTV and S4C could be received.

In those (pre-Welsh assembly) days I expect people in North Wales have more in common with Chester/Liverpool/Crewe etc than they do Cardiff and Swansea