ITV considering moving late news to 11pm (again...)

Err, no, that was the BBC who decided to move their news to 10pm.

It's the 10pm slot that causes the most problems. They either have to extend the 9pm drama an extra 30 mins or run a half hour programme. With that junction at 10pm it allows people turn over to watch the BBC News or Channel 4.

News at Nine will never happen. You have to remember that on a quiet news day people don't sit down especially to watch the news rather than a drama. A lot of the viewers for the 10 will be people who have watched the preceeding programme and just stick around

The fact that ITV were allowed to move the news to 11pm (out of primetime viewing) suggests that if they wait around a couple of years they'll be allowed to drop the nightime news altogether.

Some would argue it's in ITV's long term interest to marginalise the "primetime" news and obtain poor ratings- it only strengthens the case to set ITV free from any form of 'public service broadcasting' (which we all know they don't really do).

It'll only strengthen the case for the BBC and the license fee- and that is not a bad thing at all.

Do you think they would have done that if ITV hadn't shifted News at Ten?

David Liddiment wrote in 2003,
"Here's a startling piece of hindsight: ITV would be better off today if it had never tried to move News at Ten. Commercially it would still have a free ride at 9pm because the Nine O'Clock News would still be there, and corporately the political opprobrium heaped on ITV and its shareholders for tampering with a national news treasure would have been avoided. Instead they got the worst of all worlds."

If it's all about that 'spare' half hour at 10pm that they can't find any suitable content for, then why not move that half an hour somewere else into the schedule.

It probably requires some bold scheduling, involving Corrie and Emmerdale, and to give up on this system of fielding deliberately weak programmes against strong opposition.

I'd bring back a popular nightly quiz at 7pm, and shift everything half an hour. Emmerdale 7.30pm, Corrie at 8pm. Then from 8.30 you can have two one hour drama's, two single hour (ie. The Bill or something else) dramas or a film.

They need more programmes to start at the :30' junction as somebody watching a drama from 9.30 - 10.30 is unlikely to switch over for BBC Ten O' Clock News in the middle.

I've said too much. I'm starting to sound like a scheduling anorak. But I think there is the need for somebody to be bold if they really want a better inheritance for the 10.30, but its probably not worth it.

Januray... not November??

News at Nine simply won't happen - the 9pm slot is probably the most important in television, and they are not going to sacrifice it for a news bulletin.


One thing I have suggested in the past was this:

5.30pm ITV News
6.00pm Regional News
6.30pm Emmerdale
7.00pm TBA
8.00pm Coronation Street
8.30pm ITV News (flagship national bulletin)
9.00pm Drama / FILM
11.00pm (approx) ITV News Headlines, Regional News
11.15pm Night Time schedule


Obviously you could argue that a bulletin at 8.30pm is as much of a nuisance as at 9pm.

Also, when I originally posted this many people pointed out the BBC would probably move EastEnders to 8.30pm against the news. I think ITV actually wouldn't be too disapointed with this - they'd have something of substance to schedule against each edition of the soap.

I like the idea you have above, but isn't 5:30 kinda an awkward time? I might feel it is for a news programme, then 8:30, remeber the types of programmes on at that time. Really at this time i think that 10/10:30/11 are the perfect times for news!

just my opinion

Back to the days of the Early Evening News?!

I think 11pm is a perfect time. It means that ITV have the chance to put their movie premieres or entertainment on uninterrupted, thus losing less viewers and even carrying those viewers over to the news. However, I wish they had thought this through before launching the ITV News at 10.30 as this, if rumours prove to be correct, just adds a further line to the seemingly endless 'News at When?' list.

11pm is perfect - I miss the nightly news in fact.

It not only allows for a better prime-time line up on ITV, it's the time most other stations begin to "switch off" from their flagship programmes, so is the perfect time to switch over to ITV for a quick news bulletin before bedtime!

Interesting idea, but wouldn't news at 8.30 be too close to the 5.30 programme? Currently, the evening news and news at when are seperated by 3.5 hours whereas news at 8.30 and the 'early evening news hour' would only be seperated by 2.5 hours. I think that is a bit too close.
If however the early evening news hour would be moved to 17:00, it could work.

It's no different to the Six o'clock News and the Nine o'clock News - just 30 minutes earlier!

I suppose it's best all round if the news moves to 11pm.

However, 6.30pm would be too early then to show News. I would suggest a slight tweak of:

6.00pm Regional News
6.30pm Emmerdale
7.00pm ITV Evening News
7.30pm Coronation Street / Regional Programmes
8.00pm The Bill / Tonight / etc
9.00pm Drama / Film
10.00pm Continued from above / Drama etc
11.00pm ITV Nightly News
11.35pm etc...