ITV News

I'm not sure that's the reason at all. Especially as...



...Sky apprently bid lower than ITN for the last ITV contract tender.

I may be wrong, but I'm sure it's been claimed here before that it's a condition of the current ITV News contract that they have to move to 16:9 at some point during the course of the contract.

ITV News have been impressive on the Blunkett story this morning - despite all the speculation over the future of the channel, they're still putting the effort in.

90+ minutes of continuous coverage without adverts too - a rarity indeed.

Lauren Taylor now anchoring from Downing Street whilst Alastair Stewart swaps studios.

Yes! I have been watching the ITVNC this morning since 10am when they began that hour with the breaking news graphics.

I find it much better watching one presenter, rather than 3 or 4! and luckily Alastair Stewart was on incharge of proceedings.
Luckily they had political correspondant Peter Murphy in Westminister and instantly went there to get the latest. They had many politicians and media hacks on the phone and many more interviews with MPs in the studio and westminster.

For some reason ITV News decided not to announce that Blunkett had resigned until 11:00 instead opted for the "ITV News believes that Blunkett will resign" tack - surely taking a leaf out of the BBC's book there?

Lauren Taylor has taken over from Tom Bradbury at 11:30 and is anchoring from outside No 10 and 'asked' Tony Blair about the Blunkett situation but Tony just clenched his teeth and ignored her. Lauren and Alastair had quite a laugh over this and Lauren said,"she didn't expect him to answer and that it was pathetic really!"

To me this banter on such a high profile story is a relief when there is only so much talking heads and interviews about one subject you can take in a two hour period (also with NO adverts!!!)

I'm glad Alastair was at the helm and ITV News have proved that they are a worthy station alognside BBC24 and SKY News!

EDIT 11:45 The Press Association have just reported that Tony Blair ignored a press question whilst leaving No 10 at 11:38. Alastair read that release out and then told Lauren that he's going to ring-up PA and tell them that it wasn't the press it was only Lauren who shouted a question! LOL - great stuff.

Who as well as being IRN's political editor and ITVNC's daytime political correspondent, also does the commentary for PMQs on Sky News.

An early start for the Lunchtime News today. Good to see ITVNC taking PMQs right up to the start of the Lunchtime News, rather than taking three minutes of ads.

That's a whole two and a half hours without ads. A change of heart on the ad-break-dropping policy or are they all demob-happy at ITN now?

I wouldn't go that far. ITV Lunchtime News did infact begin early at 12:28 and the original time for the Blunkett press meeting was 12:40. It would've all gone to plan if it didn't happen until 12:52ish!

So we did get to see the Blunkett press meeting on ITV Lunchtime News but at 12:56 they decided they had had enough when they went to an advert break! He was just about to give more details about these three 'questions'

They are now bobbing in and out of the Blunkett meeting in a 'Pulse Special' Tom Bradbury has just asked a question but called himself, "Tom Bradbury ITN."

Just so you know, it's Tom Bradby[/I]

Alistair Stewart doing Evening News Extra tonight, shame I have freeview and won't be able to see it..

It's a shame that they can't create an interactive feed, even if it is the 1/4 screen teletext style that can be viewed from any other channel on freeview.

Though I suppose I could also say the same for ITV4 on Sky.

I wonder why ITV don't support the ITV News Channel more. It is actually quite a good service when it works. For example, today they've had Alastair Stewart up until the Lunchtime News, then Owen Thomas and Lucy Alexander onwards, for quite a long time. I don't know where Steve and Felicity are, but a simple format, so that they have the same presenters all the time and advertise the channel more may just create more viewers, more advertisers and therefore possibly more funding for the news channel.

It's a shame that ITV can't buy up the space of a shopping channel to put it onto freeview.

I've been very impressed today by the coverage, the only thing that they could have improved, and that I believe they should always do is to use the whole of the wall to play out the image (like the Labour backing today), rather than the centre only.

I think it's been mentioned somewhere on here before, but on Sky, not sure about freeview and cable, the adverts on the News Channel seem to be full 16:9 adverts, yet squished into a 4:3 frame.

I was just wondering who broadcast the adverts, do they broadcast them from the South Bank, the same as the other ITV channels, or are they controlled at Greys Inn Road by ITN?

And is the channel capable of displaying 16:9 adverts and trailers even if the channel itself is 4:3?

Yes, it's the same on Freeview, and has been since Tuesday morning.

Until now, the ads have been played out by NTL (Arqiva), as part of the legacy of the ITN News Channel which was co-owned by NTL.

Given the latest cockup, I wonder if the channel's playout has now moved to the South Bank?

Until now the ads have always been 14:9 in a 4:3 frame.