ITN News Channel - does TV miss it?

I never had the ITN News Channel - though watched it a bit online - but I think it's a service that I'd welcome back due to it offering something different to the other news channels.

BBC News 24, Sky News and ITV News all offer basically the same service. They all start their hour-long slots of rolling news on the hour, have sport, weather etc around the same time and have their various filler programmes.

I'm not asking if you prefer the ITV News Channel to the ITN News Channel - I think to be honest they are two completly different services - but whether you think the service the ITN News Channel offered would be an asset to television news.

The ITN News Channel wasn't so much a rolling news service - it was just a chance to catch the latest news anytime of the day - initially in 15 minute bulletins, and later in 30 minute bulletins.

Outside the schedule terrestrial bulletins you can't really do that anymore. The main 24-hr news providers usually spread their coverage out over an hour, often interupted by breaking news / press conferences etc - though the BBC (and Sky I think) provide an interactive headlines service which offers the news in just 3 minutes or so.


Maybe there is another solution. As I said above the main TV news channels offer similar content starting on the hour, every hour. Would it be a good idea for one channel (I'd suggest ITV News) to switch their schedules so coverage began on the half-hour, and therefore would be slightly different to their rivals!

definitely - i think itn nc was ahead of its time. if they could have ironed out the rights issues on the reports and secured 24hr carriage on dtt earlier i'm sure audiences would have picked up. itn's interactive services that it still provides for mobiles, trains etc would all have complimented the news channel and vice versa. itn seem to be first choice when it comes to provision of news services for mobile devices and outdoor, which share the old itn graphics package - and would be even more successful if the bbc hadn’t dipped their toe into the water with a somewhat questionable approach, but that is a different story.

the itn nc didn’t need big name presenters in the same way as the bbci multiscreen doesn’t, so it would be a relatively cheap operation to run.

I definately aggree. youve got to admit it was a classy channel with an ultra modern set. I liked the fact there was no two presenters on at the same time everything being sololy fronted - near enough. It would be quite good to reintroduce it. I know that itv has its own news service which may cause a bit of a leagal knickertwist if such a move is ever mooted..

If capitals signifies shouting does this signify projecting yor voice to the back of the room?

The ITN NC was good, IMO. The ITV NC is currently a mess.

Because of the layout of the set, there is no continuity of presenting styles. They're all over the bit. I don't like the yellow slug at the bottom left - hand corner - there is no need for it. They would be better doing what ITV News on ITV 1 does, use the box, with the image and the text underneath - looks a lot neater.

Anyway, part of the problem is that the NC does not have its own set like Sky and BBC News 24. There must be room to build a small simple set, what about the space vacated by five, or even better, something in the actual newsroom - it would be a lot better, and I would watch it a lot more if it sorted out its presentation.

You haven't really understood the purpose of this thread have you?

Perhaps you would care to enlighten me ?

when the ITVNC first started, it actually took off where ITN left - with the news in half hour segments. Only after they got more money did they start on the hour

The ITN News Channel had the potential to be a really good service, but unfortunately it ended up just as a poor man's N24/Sky.

The launch format was great - all the news and sport in the first 15 mins, then more on those stories in the second 15. They also had travel updates at breakfast and on bank holidays.

But unfortunately it didn't really make any attempt to market itself as a different kind of service. If they'd made good use of tickers/graphics to make the channel more like CNN Headline News, then it could have been really distinctive - but sadly the channel had a bit of an identity crisis and couldn't work out what it wanted to do.

Erm no, don't do that.

The ITN News Channel was fantastic IMO, it provided a good alternative, just to bring the News and to do so from a very small studio. But the better thing was that it was backed up by loads of other Media, such as Palm pads, the Internet, the Press Red service on NTL, IIRC it was also available on DAB.

But the channel had many problems, firstly it was on Sky channel 525, same as ITV News, nowhere near Sky News or BBC News 24. Secondly through DTT it was only available between 5.30am and 9.00am, which was a joke, it should have been 24 hours. Another problem was that it lost ITN alot of money, then ITN had alot of financial troubles thanks to losses and to regain the ITV News contract when everyone thought that Sky News was going to get it. Then at that point you could tell that ITN had given up, as they were just repeating reports from News bulletins on ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

The end was nigh when they sold up to Carlton and Granada, and then at 5.30am on Monday 30th September 2002 it died and became The ITV News Channel. Though for a year and a half things weren't much different IMO, except that it was fully ITV News this time. Though I give it to ITV for investing alot of money into the channel and making it far superior than what it once was. But it still has along way to go.

There were rumours flying around at the time that ITN were going to make the News Channel very "Headline News-esque" with news ticker and sport, weather and business down the right hand side. Shame they didn't really - certainly would have given them a different market.