Stupid decision - ITV do the integrated bulletins so much better than the BBC, and they do regional news alot more good than halm. Let's face it - you're far less likely to watch it if it's just stuck at the end of the programme.
I think axing the headline within the 1.30pm/10.30pm intro makes sense, but they should keep the evening news recap - though I'd like to see the bulletin itself introduced with a proper ITV1 ident.
I think perhaps this is the start of the seperation of these two once again. Allowing the regional magazines to move away from "hard news" and become simply a topical programme which fulfills the minimum Ofcom requirement.
I think you're right, there.
In the run-up to
Central News at Six
(West) becoming
Central Tonight
, Bob Warman & Co basically admitted that the programme isn't really a news programme anymore. (They said something to the effect of: "we're changing our name to
Central Tonight
next week, to reflect the fact that we're a more magazine-y programme nowadays", or similar).
I imagine that those ITVplc that still use "
Region News
" as their short bulletin title, will change to something more like the "
Region Today/Region Tonight
" formula in the near future. Thus paving the way for even the short bulletins to be as un-newsy as OfCom requirements will allow them to get away with.
Even Granada will probably revert to 1990s title "
Granada Tonight
", for all evening bulletins, as the word "Reports" is also too newsy.
Thames Valley could do with dropping the current insanity of using "
...Today
" for the 2255 bulletin IMHO, in favour of using the Today/Tonight variation in the same way that ITV West and ITV London do (and all other ITVplc regions who choose to adopt the Today/Tonight formula should use it that way too).
Clearly, ITV Wales are rather stuck for what else to call their daytime bulletins, as the BBC have first refusal over the "Wales Today" title. It seems a bit unclear as to whether the "
ITV
" bit counts as an 'official' part of the
Wales News
title or not. The title certainly sound better
with
the
ITV
bit, as just "
Wales News
" sounds odd. Perhaps their DOG and side plasmas could be amended to include the "
ITV
" bit, on the short bulletins (written in capitals, in the same plain white text as the rest of the title, rather than in "itv" logo style as in the title sequence)??
EDIT:
I'm not sure what Border and Calendar should do (?).
Why would
Calendar
or
Lookaround
need to change their names?
Calendar
couldn't call itself "Yorkshire Tonight" since half the region isn't in Yorkshire, unless YTV changed its onscreen name to the "Calendar Region".
I suppose ITV Wales could call its programme Cymru Today/Tonight maybe (or HTV Today/Tonight of course )?
Cymru Heno is the old name for the Welsh language programme, which might still be in use on S4C.
Cymru Today sounds a bit of a hotch-potch mix of the languages. A bit like looking in the side of the road for those slow arafs that everybody's talking about.
I've just been watching Thames Valley Today on ITV Local, and Wesley said that their lunchtime news will be at the later time of 1.55 on Monday, so it's true. Not that we didn't believe Nick Harvey though. Just confirmation.
Will this affect commercial breaks then within the programmes with the bulletin running shorter.
Not 100% sure, but IIRC a 25 minute news bulletin can't include a commercial break, unlike a 30-minute edition.
Therefore a 30 minute programme with a 5 regional opt-out could include a commercial break, but a 25-minute bulletin followed by a 5-minute local bulletin couldn't.
Clearly, ITV Wales are rather stuck for what else to call their daytime bulletins, as the BBC have first refusal over the "Wales Today" title. It seems a bit unclear as to whether the "
ITV
" bit counts as an 'official' part of the
Wales News
title or not. The title certainly sound better
with
the
ITV
bit, as just "
Wales News
" sounds odd.
EDIT:
I'm not sure what Border and Calendar should do (?).
I think ITV Wales News will have to do (no Today/Tonight appendage). As for Border (it is a region as well as a company name, so that's OK). Calendar would have to go in favour of Yorkshire Today/Tonight I suppose.
According to DigiGuide it's already called Wales Tonight
I don't see why Calendar should change its name in order to alienate its viewers who aren't actually living in Yorkshire.
Cymru Today sounds a bit of a hotch-potch mix of the languages. A bit like looking in the side of the road for those slow arafs that everybody's talking about.
Oh come on - the news broadcasts consist of:
Welsh lingo
....crash on M4....
welsh bit.
....Department of Heath..
welsh bit
....etc
Clearly, ITV Wales are rather stuck for what else to call their daytime bulletins, as the BBC have first refusal over the "Wales Today" title. It seems a bit unclear as to whether the "
ITV
" bit counts as an 'official' part of the
Wales News
title or not. The title certainly sound better
with
the
ITV
bit, as just "
Wales News
" sounds odd.
EDIT:
I'm not sure what Border and Calendar should do (?).
I think ITV Wales News will have to do (no Today/Tonight appendage). As for Border (it is a region as well as a company name, so that's OK). Calendar would have to go in favour of Yorkshire Today/Tonight I suppose.
The lunchtime bulletins in my area are called North East News, does this mean it will in time to come changed to North East Today. Currently the news at 6pm is called North East Tonight (NET for short).
I'm surprised, and slightly amused, that the voting in the poll is currently standing at nine votes all.
I'd have expected all the votes to be for separate bulletins and none at all for integrated, given that this forum is normally a bastion of "keep ITV regional" views.
Will this affect commercial breaks then within the programmes with the bulletin running shorter.
I don't know the answer to this as fact, but if they really do want a commercial break during the half hour, I'd have thought that they can now, safely, put it between the two separate programmes.
Will this affect commercial breaks then within the programmes with the bulletin running shorter.
I don't know the answer to this as fact, but if they really do want a commercial break during the half hour, I'd have thought that they can now, safely, put it between the two separate programmes.
Which would definately guarantee a big drop in ratings for the regional news.
Perhaps that's the plan - then ITV can go crying to OFCOM.
)?
