The Newsroom

Channel 4 News

(November 2011)

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GO
gottago
You can get the gist from this part of the article:

Quote:
Speaking to the culture, media and sport select committee on Tuesday, C4 chair Charles Gurassa said the mistake was “one incident too many”.

He revealed that the broadcaster had informed ITN the breach was “completely unacceptable” and of “such magnitude” that it had been referred to the C4 board.

The board responded by launching an independent review into the mistake and tightening internal procedures to ensure “lessons had been learned”.

Despite this, Gurassa and outgoing chief executive David Abraham said C4 would seek an alternative news provider if such a mistake occurred again.

“If we saw this happening again that would be the nature of the conversation,” Abraham said. “I can’t defend the breaches – they have occurred.”

It’s the fourth times in three years that they’ve been in breach so it’s not unreasonable for C4 to threaten them with changing supplier.
NL
Ne1L C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macmillan_Media
NL
Ne1L C
This was a long time ago, back in 2001 Sky and CBS formed a consortium to bid to produce ITV News.
They got approval from ITC - ultimately ITN was researched the contract
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jan/23/bskyb.itv


That would have been some setup!
IS
Inspector Sands

And why wouldn't C4 do what almost every other TV channel in Europe does -- produce its own news? (With continued access to various newsgathering agencies, of course.) Or would that go against its "publisher broadcaster" concept?

It would, but the bigger issue would be starting from scratch. It's a TV company with no production staff, production facilities or no history of making anything. Other broadcasters like the BBC have always done their own news, going back decades when broadcast news was in its infancy.

It's also very expensive, a company like ITN or Sky can provide a news programme much cheaper as they're already doing it.
IS
Inspector Sands
Who could credibly replace ITN?

Well Sky are the obvious favourite, being the only other major UK news broadcaster (unless the BBC would be in the running which I doubt)


I reckon if it happens Al Jazeera will give it a go. Definitely a credible provider as they're very well resourced both globally and in the UK, and their plans for a UK orientated channel disappeared so do have some overlap capacity to do it.

The news agencies such as Reuters would be 'credible' but have little in the way of production resources to make a programme.

I'm sure there's a few independent production companies that could do it though they'd need to buy in footage, there's a danger they'd just be turning round agency copy
CH
chris
Interesting development.

Channel 4's license doesn't allow it to make its own programmes so that's a non-starter. An independent production company that hasn't made news before or currently also seems pretty unlikely - C4 News relies heavily on pooled ITN resources for ITV News / Channel 5 News.

Sky News or Al Jaz are good shouts as replacements; assuming the latter's threatened closure goes away for good, I'd say it was the best contender.

That said, it seems that they're giving ITN another chance and the threat of a change of provider is more so that the practices in the Channel 4 newsroom are strengthened.
IS
Inspector Sands
The thing is that the contract comes up for tender eventually anyway. If it makes it to the next one due then it will mean ITN will have to work extra hard to get it renewed
AA
Aaron_2015
Why is ITN getting the blame for the breaches in any case? ITV News and 5 News both avoided making the mistakes C4 News made despite the fact they are made by the same provider.
DO
dosxuk
Why is ITN getting the blame for the breaches in any case? ITV News and 5 News both avoided making the mistakes C4 News made despite the fact they are made by the same provider.


Who's fault do you think it is?!
IS
Inspector Sands
Why is ITN getting the blame for the breaches in any case? ITV News and 5 News both avoided making the mistakes C4 News made despite the fact they are made by the same provider.

They're different programmes made by different production teams overseen by different editors... but they're all employed by and responsible to ITN.

The ITV and 5 news teams might not even have covered the same story/angle as the ones that C4 News made the mistakes in. 4 has a lot more investigative journalism and that's far more likely to be problematic legally.... Not that that is an excuse!
BR
Brekkie
Maybe this could be the contract that saves Arise News!
HC
Hatton Cross
"Now at 7 on four - last night's Channel Four news.." Very Happy

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