ITV News

They were short staffed on the News Channel this morning. Andrew Harvey did the breakfast show on his own and therefore also did the news summaries as part of Live with Alistair Stewart.

Don't forget that the ITV NC lost about half its viewers when it went off Freeview which is probably a reason why they are struggling with getting sponsors.

The Traffic update was much better today, focusing less on the London traffic cameras and more on other parts of the country, they also mentioned trams and trains.

So the first hour Lunctime News today then (in a way). The way that Nina holds that pen! Brutal!

IMO it is, as it a good News service from one of the best Broadcasters, as it provides a happy medium between BBC News 24 and Sky News. You have to remember that the original ITN News Channel ran on next to nothing, it used repackaged reports and used the old ITV studio, then disaster struck for ITN, it had to save money and make several cutbacks, in one way it would be an embarassment for ITN to close down a News channel, also NTL was a shareholder so they had a say aswell.

But in 2002 Carlton and Granada bought ITN's stake and probably got it cheap as the company had alot of debts then. I can see it more as a long term investment in ITV and an addition to ITV's channel portfolio, and really it was an odd one out, as the BBC had a news channel as did BSkyB, but nothing from ITV. In a way though as good as the NC is, it is too little too late IMO, the original ITV NC was using the old set, repackaged reports, pratically the same and from a set that was only designed for main bulletin use. But then magic happened at the start of last year, it was given a respectable set for News chnanel, it brought in dual anchoring and got more exclusive reports and used ITV's resources, such as UK Today, something that is NOT offered from the BBC or Sky.

Give it time, give it time to get back on Freeview, give it Interactive content (well the promised Teletext on ITV sounds better than nothing) and give it a better place on Sky and it might pay off. Give these things time.

I see that Nazanine Moshiri is on the overnight shift.

The News Channel slowly seems to be getting back to full strength after the Christmas break (and the Tsunami coverage).

Yesterday Steve Scott was back and today Lucy Alexander has returned.

Also, has the News Channel settled its dispute with GMTV re sharing material? I just saw Sue Jameson reporting from Oban.

In other news Carol Barnes has been barred as a magistrate

To add on the comments of ITV News thread 'correspondents' about using National Weather forecasters using the Newswall to provide their forecasts live every 30 or 60 minutes - I would like to see it as well but ITV plc only have Martyn Davies, Sian Lloyd, Becky Mantin, Chrissie Reidy and Robin Lermitte. They could use them but I can't seem them working for something like 20 hours - something like the first weather forecast of the day at 7.24am and the last weather forecast of the day at 11.56pm.

Having the weather at the news wall - or imposed on the floor - may look nice - but it wouldn't actually add anything.

What they really need to do is concentrate on their current packages. I'd suggest using a similar approach to the ITN News Channel on the half hour - with a graphics led scan across the UK. A more detailed weather forecast should then be on the hour (you know what I mean!) in the more traditional format.

I'd also suggest extended reports in the lead up to the main ITV1 bulletins.

For example, before the Lunchtime News you'd have:
11.00am - ITV News (main studio)
11.30am - ITV News Headlines - top story recap (main studio)
11.35am - Weather - an extended report
11.45am - Sport (CSO) - an extended report
12.00 - ITV News (CSO)
12.25pm - Weather
12.30pm - ITV Lunchtime News

This format would be repeated for the later bulletins.

Re: weather - have the snow reports returned?

Also, now five news has gone I think the ITV News Channel should get it's own studio. Nothing to flash - just a similar layout to the main studio without the newswall. They'd get a couple of plasma screens and a standard CSO screen for reports. This would enable them to have a less disrupted schedule in the lead up to the news, with regular presenters in from 10.00-12.30, 4.00-6.30 and 8.00-10.30.

Not Sure why they dont have a weather sponsor at the moment but the reason the business isn't sponsored is because its against OFCOM rules. they have to have a seperate business presenter if they want to sponsor a segment. So i suppose the question is- would it be worth their while & would the money they recieve from sponsorship be high enough to cover the costs of having someone dedicated to business reports.

That's incorrect.

OFCOM will allow advertising WITHIN news programming (including rolling news channels) - but it's a strange animal...the channel/programme has to go to a "break" - why you see a sting for a certain amount of time before the sponsor is played.

Business actually used to sponsored by IBM.

That makes sense why they havent had the sponsor for buisnnes for a while now. Doesnt cost that much money surely, to produce a graphic with a few numbers on it!

I hear Owen now has blond hair...! Any chance of a cap?

I know it used to be sponsored by IBM but i read a story in which Dominic Crossley Holland was complaing about OFCOM and how they had to use different presenters if the segments were sponsorsed and it seems to make sense as i cant see why they would use a sponsor for travel updates (which use a seperate presenter) but not business and sport.