I do hope that in 2007 - ITV NEWS will be getting a new studio. As I am sick and also bored of the current one. If they were to start on a new studio.. would they do work on the old one (before the virtual). Or is their just one news studio?
I really doubt that'll happen, considering that the studio has been revamped 3 times in 2 and a half years.
All they've done is..
- Changed lighting.
- Changed walkway panels.
- Changed background.
It's not exactly a revamp - just making the studio feel warmer.
But the studio was about 1 million pounds am I right?
And with ITV's budget I highly doubt they will be getting a whole new one. This studio has the ability to adapt very easily and thats one of the reasons why ITV built it.
i know i'm potentially stepping into tricky waters here in actually talking about a newsreader, but are ITN ever going to name a permanent ITV weekend news presenter? I don't think there has been one since Andrea Catherwood left has there?
One weekend - recently. James Mates did the Weekend programmes and also the Nightly News on the Friday before.
But I think that was just a one off. Recently its mostly been Romilly Weeks. But of course their is the others aswell mentioned above.
Yes Romilly has done most of the weekend this past month or so but thats because the others like Steve and Lucy do bulletins during the week (either on HTV West/Wales or ITV national). Geraint did last weekend and Nina is on Maturnity leave. When they are all there its pretty much split between them at weekends.
The Sunday night edition is arguably ITV News's flagship bulletin - generally gets the highest ratings at least.
As I've said since the ITV News Channel closed they should put more focus on the weekend bulletins, especially now ITV have torn up most of their weekend schedule.
A fixed 30 minute edition (including local opt-outs) at 12.30pm and 5.30pm would be a good idea,with a late15-minute edition around 11pm.
Talking of weekend bulletins though, what happened to primetime news commitments on a Saturday. It used to be the case they had to have one 15-minute bulletin starting between something like 6pm and 11.15pm - but lately on ITV the early bulletin is often before 5pm and the late bulletin after 11.30pm.
Personally I think they should switch to the second virtual studio, set up similar to the Briefings with the Big Ben clockface forming the floor, then adding a circular desk in the middle. Wouldn't be as much room for "news wall" style features though - but enough!
