Central News East set

Hopefully they'll all go on strike allowing the ITV bosses to change the locks on the doors and bring in some decent staff! I'm considering a campaign t o ban the current Central News line-up from TV. I think the European Court of Human Rights will back me on this. Saddam Hussein tortured his people less than ITV Central tortures me!

No wonder this country is in a state that its in with people like you.

Somebody needs to chill out.... no-one is forcing you to watch Central News!!! I think Central staff do a good job considering what they have to put up with from ITV big-wigs. Central is not as bad as Look North Hull -- and Central News hasn't got Anne Davies anymore (sorry Anne but you get on my nerves). There is some good staff at Central... you make them sound like spawn of the devil.

I don't think Central News has committed any gas-attacks on Kurds as far as I know BTW

I'm a journalist myself in a low budget, low staffed radio newsroom and I can safely tell you that we do a far better job than the team at Central. I am not being forced to watching it but I believe that a region the size of the East Midlands deserves a better quality news service. The presenters are wooden, the production standards are dire and the stories - well don't even get me started on them. Remember, Central used to be 'The East Midlands number one'. Not any more - and there's limits to how much you can blame Charles Allan. They are crap and major changes are needed if anyone is going to sympathise with their cause. (BTW it's worth noting that their strike will be fruitless because in radio exactly the same happened during the late 80s when people were sacked in favour of technology - it didn't stop the technology being brought in and most of the strikers are now senior management within the big radio groups!)

I like the point about radio strikers now being managers!! That's the difference between radio and TV news production I think... radio can be made on shoestring budget, and it can be succesful as you point out. However regional TV news requires more staff and technology, which costs more. Plus TV regional news operations tend cover larger areas than radio news operation, so the cost of travel is greater.

This is why cutting ITV regional operations funds to the bare minimum has affected Central News adversely; especially bearing in mind that Central has the biggest (in terms of coverage-area size) region in the ITV plc stable.

Oh Lordy... i watched Central News East for the first time last week... I can safely say I've never seen such a dire programme. The male presenter looked about 13, but without the social skills of a teenager. He also tried to make jokes.... I'll leave it there. The woman looked terrified, giggled at everything, had a voice that could cut metal. And as for the content... they led on people going to Eastern Europe to go to a dentist... a story about 3 years old that's been done on countless occasions. I bet the BBC can't believe its luck. Who watches this?

Try watching Central News - it's comic. Watching the late update some (and whole heartedly agree with you) 14 year old, complete with first signs of subtle, popped up. Tried reading the moving-wordy machine and then looked awfully worried - bless.

Slow news days effect even the best (The 6 was more a vox pop than news bulletin last night) and when it comes down to a regional level then jesus christ, it's crisis time. I seem to remember watching a recent edition which lead on the news a man was filming faster than television channels and then selling it back on.

This is the point I've tried to make when slagging off the output of the news show! A decent news set-up would have a set up with strong, original, investigative stories that can run on slower news days. There should never EVER be a day where the top story is completely dire. This is simply unacceptable and suggests that the people working there simply don't have the qualifications to do the job.
BTW - It's worth mentioning that Central staff and other ITV PLC staff are considering striking for the same reasons that Grampian staff contemplated walking out. Their strike was called off after SMG made a couple of token gesture compromises but very little was achieved.

I hear what you are all saying....

From what my CNE inside contacts say, the editor of CNE "has plenty of good ideas-- but no money to carry them out". My source also believes that the stories that are put in the 'rap' halfway through the show, are the ones that should making the headlines!

Sadly a lot of the good staff at CNE are now departing. I thought CNE was OK until two years ago, when the operation was split-up following the ITV merger.

Hmmm, interesting how the blurb on this page fails to mention that the actual studio-based presentation comes from Birmingham...

Obviously they don't out-and-out lie (i.e. by saying that even the studio is in Terry Lloyd House), but the careful wording would gives "non-anorak" viewers no reason to suspect that any element of the service is based outside of Nottingham and/or the East Midlands.

(Although those concrete colums behind Steve and Sameena in the photo give it away, for anyone who is familiar with what the outside of the Gas Street (B'ham) building looks like)

PS, why no profile for Steve?

Tell you what is scary... the viewing figures for CNE are up ! Does that mean CNE is getting better or EMT is getting worse?? They've only just started putting profiles on the website in the last two weeks, so Steve et al ought to appear soon

A mention of the CNE studio being at Birmingham is on the CNW sub-site

Yep, The East Midlands edition of Central News is presented from a studio at Gas Street. ITV cut the original Studio A in half during autumn 2004, to cater for CNE from Feb 2005.

When they say lets go live to the newsroom (on CNE), this is actually at Terry Lloyd House near Nottingham. They either have a shot with the news room behind or sometimes a small set for sport. The small set from what I can gather is at one end of the newsroom.