What was that woman called who presented the sports update, during the ITV News at Ten Thirty? She was the regular presenter who sat down to the right of Mark at the desk, for the main sports report, and then stood up for the rest.
Felicity Barr - now working at Al Jazeera English I believe?
I thought someone would say Felicity Barr, I remember her well, she was the regular relief presenter before Nina Houssain. However the presenter I was thinking about was Lisa Knights. Thanks for your help, is Lisa now at Setanta?
Why is there no consistency with weekend bulletins anymore? Aside from the fact that the times of bulletins vary considerably from week to week (tonight's late news is at the appalling time of midnight!), but also presentation varies quite considerably too. Sometimes they start with a full headline sequence; other times it starts with just a sting and there are even a few different versions of that! This evening's bulletin started with the usual intro end sting but one bulletin earlier in the week started with a strange sting formed around the middle part of the usual titles. It's little things like that which make ITV News seem unprofessional.
Of course it is. When I saw the start of tonight's bulletin, I immediately thought 'unprofessional'
The fact that it is Christmas week means things won't be as they usually are as bulletins are shorter and lower staffed. This would have been interesting to this forum at one time, now just an excuse to moan
But, Andrew, this goes on all year long. There's never consistency when it comes to the weekend news. Sometimes it's five minutes, some times it's 15 minutes. Sometimes you get a full sports round-up, other times it's one story. As I said, the format of bulletins frequently changes - sometimes full opening sequences, other times it is just a sting (and, as I said, there's even several of those which are used). The Morning News is another example - sometimes there's a headlines sequence, other times it is just a sting. There's no consistency...
Furthermore, is it not Christmas at the BBC, too? They've had consistent bulletins of the same length, using the same presentational devices as they do all year long. How do you answer that one?
I thought someone would say Felicity Barr, I remember her well, she was the regular relief presenter before Nina Houssain. However the presenter I was thinking about was Lisa Knights. Thanks for your help, is Lisa now at Setanta?
Furthermore, is it not Christmas at the BBC, too? They've had consistent bulletins of the same length, using the same presentational devices as they do all year long. How do you answer that one?
I don't need to, ITV have always done this sort of thing
In the previous studio, you'd get some bulletins where the camera would just zoom in from on high with a short bit of music and then the bulletin would start with no headlines
We've been commenting for months though on the standard of the ITV Weekend bulletins - they used to be treated on a par with the weekday ones, but now they're just an after thought.
Saturdays especially are ridiculous - 4.30pm and around midnight seems to be the preferred time for bulletins.
OFCOM to blame once again though - not so long ago they had to screen a 15-minute bulletin starting sometime between 6pm and 11.15pm.
It's hard not to be cynical about the game they're playing with weekend news scheduling at the moment - especially with regard to the regional news.
Often the 'late' regional weekend bulletin is at 4-something - with the national news following later.
It is hard not to suspect this is a deliberate ploy to depress the viewing figures and ease the way for the further rationalisation of the regional service.
It's hard not to be cynical about the game they're playing with weekend news scheduling at the moment - especially with regard to the regional news.
Often the 'late' regional weekend bulletin is at 4-something - with the national news following later.
It is hard not to suspect this is a deliberate ploy to depress the viewing figures and ease the way for the further rationalisation of the regional service.
I agree with that one. I'm not sure what they are playing at having the regional news and the national news hours apart
To be honest I think maybe they should drop the lunchtime regional bulletin, if it led to the teatime regional bulletin being a full 15 minutes and at 5pm Saturdays, 6.25pm Sundays most weeks
It's hard not to be cynical about the game they're playing with weekend news scheduling at the moment - especially with regard to the regional news.
Often the 'late' regional weekend bulletin is at 4-something - with the national news following later.
It is hard not to suspect this is a deliberate ploy to depress the viewing figures and ease the way for the further rationalisation of the regional service.
Yes, that is ridiculous. There's no logical reason why the programme sandwiched between the regional and national news programmes can't just be shown earlier, with the regional news following. It has to be, as you said, a ploy to squash viewing figures.
I agree with Andrew; I'd rather ITV had just one regional bulletin at weekends, like the BBC, but have it at a decent length.
As for tonight's scenario, it's ludicrous. Who on earth is going to be watching the news bulletin at midnight? At that time, if you want news, the best places to go are the news channels. Anyone looking for the news around the usual 10pm mark will inevitably go to the BBC.
Well the reason there is so much inconsistency with the Saturday bulletins scheduling is clearly because the weekend schedules are never the same from one Saturday to the next. Programmes in both daytime and peak time on Saturday are always starting at different times, its not like a weekday where there is generally the same schedule running each night i.e. 6.00pm News hour, 7pm soaps, 8pm Tonight/The Bill, 9pm Drama.
Tonight the regional news was 5.30pm with the national at 5.45pm, but how often do we see that? The evening line up of entertainment shows started tonight at 6pm but in recent weeks it has started at different times each week from 5pm, 5.15pm, 5.30pm, 5.40pm which means the news moves its start time each week.
Sundays arent so bad as Saturdays as they have a more structured schedule from 7pm onwards with the soaps then the 8pm drama so the national news generally goes out at 6.45pm on Sundays. However im not sure why they are moving the regional bulletins around, one week its before the national news at 6.30pm the next its been moved as early as 4pm.
There didnt appear to be any consistency in the length regional bulletins this week either- on Thursdays the evening bulletin in my region was about 6 minutes long, but I was pleasantly surprised on Friday as we got almost the full 15 minutes. Not sure if that was the same in all regions or whether we just got more adverts either side of it on Thursday. And yes I know it was Christmas week so not to expect normal service but I just thought it was odd having such different timings for the bulletins 2 days in a row. Also the late bulletin was as late as 11.30pm on both days which is rather late, but not as bad as tonights late national bulletin going out at midnight!
There didnt appear to be any consistency in the length regional bulletins this week either- on Thursdays the evening bulletin in my region was about 6 minutes long, but I was pleasantly surprised on Friday as we got almost the full 15 minutes.
They were both supposed to be 15 mins but Thursday's was shortened due to the breaking news story.
Quite funny as here at lunchtime they said to tune in at 6.30 for a full football round up, then at 6.30 said that they didn't have time anymore so tune in at 11.25 instead!