ITN News Channel

I'm going to post this as a separate topic, as there is a whole issue here that would benefit from wider discussion outside of the ITV News presenters thread.

It was the one thing I truly liked about the ITN News Channel. Straight forward reporting, no nonsense, just straight News delivered professionally.

Some have compared it to the old CNN Headline News channel of the 80s and 90s before it became infected with Headline Prime and opinion programming. It holds water, but in my view, the simple graphics and straightforwardness of the ITN News Channel was better than the more showy graphics and presentation of a Headline News.

Like Phil and Brekkie, I would love to see a channel like this back on our screens.

Imagine if they had a weekly programme with the best reports from ITV, 4 and 5 News - I'd certainly watch that.

I guess the issue is that the content is funded by ITV, C4 and C5 respectively, It would - in some ways - be like Endemol Shine running a channel with Pointless, Big Brother, 8 out of Ten Cats, and Grantchester all on it (which are all EndemolShine produced shows for the BBC, C5, C4 and ITV respectively).

ITN is effectively an independent producer for the three channels, in the same way EndemolShine is.

If it wanted to run a news channel of its own and carry content funded and commissioned by other broadcasters, it would need to negotiate either a contract reduction or payment to access that content I'd imagine?

Well, the idea of ITN launching a news channel now is a pipe dream itself, so I may as well fantasise with the programming too

From what I recall, the ITN News Channel could access ITV News copy after it'd been aired on the main ITV bulletins, so they were restricted in what they could actually show. The channel rebranding as ITV News helped a lot with regards to content.

However, for a low cost channel, ITN did punch above it's weight, but hampered by a lack of Freeview airtime which only improved when ITV took it on.

As ITV are clearly having reservations about prime time news (moving News at Ten to 10.30 for the sake of light entertainment etc) I don't know why they don't set up a news channel to take all their news. A rolling half hourly news programme would offer something slightly different from the sensationalism of Sky News. They could then clear the schedule on ITV for chasing ratings.

If they put such a channel high up in the freeview catalog (e.g takeover channel 6 from ITV2) it should give those news channels languishing on 130, 132 a run for tir money. Hell, they even have a ready made name for such a channel - ITN

The Channel 3 licences require prime time news provision on the licenced channels.

Err - I think I know why they don't do that. They want to be on 3 / 103 in the EPG, and be gifted access to a large chunk of the PSB2 Freeview multiplex...

ITV is a public service broadcaster, and have a licence which has public service requirements. One of those is to carry news in prime time, another is to provide a certain level of regional news. In return they get a prime position, protected by law, in the EPGs of all the major platforms AND access to just-under half of one of the three main Freeview public service multiplexes (shared with C4 and C5).

If they ditched News on ITV, they'd be in breach of their licence and lose these.



I suspect Freeview and Ofcom would have something to say about that.

They got so much right - nice, clean set and graphics (although, if I recall, they launched with nicer straps than the ones in that video), good presenters, and a no-nonsense approach.

But, yes, the fact that they were reliant on content that belonged to other people was a major drawback.

The set was one of my problems with the channel. That desk was way too small and that column in the middle of the wide shot felt like a distraction rather than a set piece.

A better design would have been something along the lines of the old ITN on ITV set that was used from 1995 until 1999.

On that note, after ITN News was renamed ITV News, the 1995-99 set was still used for the overnight summaries and the Morning News (with the ITV logo replacing the ITN one) for another year. Perhaps it was that studio that was used by the ITN channel.

Yes, it was. The ITV bulletins came from Studio 3 / PCR2 between 1995 and 1999. The main daytime bulletins moved down to the basement in 1999 and used Studio 1 and PCR1. However, the overnight bulletins and Morning News remained in Studio 3 until mid-2000. It was at this point that the ITN News Channel launched, forcing the overnight bulletins to move to the basement. PCR2 was mothballed and PCR4 was created for the ITN NC. I believe the studio was then renamed Studio 4 (maybe for consistency with the control room?).

On the subject of Studio 3, you may not be aware that the Big Breakfast News bulletins used to come from there during the late 90s before moving to Studio 6 (Channel 4 News) in 1999-ish. Studio 3 was also the home to the ITN World News for a while.