ITV News

In that case, ITV can never win. The BBC is lucky because it doesn't have to have commercial breaks. For ITV, they're a necessity. If you've noticed, the break has been scrapped for the Lunchtime News and currently, the News at 10.30 doesn't have a break. It's only the Evening News which does (and this is sometimes dropped, too). Therefore, the structure is no different to any BBC bulletin. As for your comment about headlines and coming up sequences (by the way, as a TV pres enthusiast, shouldn't you be as interested in those as the content?) they are vital to programmes. It's how they keep the attention of the viewer. If I see them trailing an interesting report before the break, I'm much more likely to stay tuned. And, the BBC have had such sequences for as long as I can remember - way back into the 1980s. Even the BBC World Service trail for a minute at the top of every hour and that's probably as high-brow as you're going to get.

I disagree with your comments regarding start times, too. There's nothing wrong with the half past start, in my opinion. The BBC have the monopoly on the hour, so there would be little point in having every BBC and ITV bulletin clashing. ITV are brave enough going head-to-head with the BBC at ten o'clock. They'd be stupid to do it at lunchtime and early evening. I actually like having the BBC bulletins on the hour and ITV on the half hour - it means if I want to see more on a story I can switch over and it's also handy if I miss a BBC bulletin altogether.

One of my problems with start times is that with ITV it always seems like they're at half past the hour to compensate other programs - such as Loose women. My point about commercial breaks is that yes, you have to have them for ITV otherwise it couldn't run, but then they should try to use their time more wisely. The fact that you often get the headlines at the start, then a 'still to come', an 'after the break' and a on tonights program...

I also think that there is no need for there to be two anchors - the BBC have proved one is sufficient!

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Changing the subject does anyone know when the new look ITV and ITV schedule comes into force and how the other bullitens will be affected?

Well ITV has nearly always shown their programmes during the last half hour of an hour.
The Morning News was always at 5.30
The Lunchtime News has always been at 12.30 apart from a time when it was moved to 1pm for a period of time
and the Evening News was originally the Early Evening News at 5.40 before coming the Evening News at 6.30
I don't see the problem with this schdueling at all

What a lot of nonsense. Whether there is one or two (or more) presenters on any news programme is simply a circular fashion trend. The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky have pretty much all had any number of presenters for most of their main programmes at some stage. Hasn't the BBC Six only just recently gone from two to one presenter?


That has been widely published as January 14th.

Indeed, and the Six O'Clock News was co-presented from its creation in 1984 until May 1999. Apart from now, it has only been single-headed for under four of its 24 years on the air! The Nine O'Clock News was also co-presented until 1988.

I really don't see where imnogoth is coming from on this. Why are the BBC right to start on the hour, but ITV is in the wrong for starting on the half hour? Isn't it better to have choice?

I don't think there is anything wrong with having bulletins on at different times. I think ITV are actually quite wise for doing this. The average news viewer will not necessarily be like us on here, so won't be fussy which news program they watch. If they watch BBC News and see a story they are interested in and want to know more about, then the next step is to turn on the ITV News when the BBC bulletin has finished.

I prefer a double headed bulletin because sometimes you get bored of watching the same person.

What a pathetic argument?


The ITV Evening News especially is at home in it's 6.30pm slot and provides a service for those not back from work in time for the 6pm news on the BBC. It also provides a surprisingly healthy inheritance for Emmerdale, and hence the rest of the ITV1 primetime schedule.


I agree the Lunchtime News is in a stupid slot at 1.30pm - but it's 12.30pm, not 1pm it needs to move back to. Relatively speaking head to head the One o'clock News is in a much stronger position than the primetime bulletins, and ITV lost their only real advantage of being first with the news when the bulletin switched to 1.30pm. As I've said many times, that was a far bigger mistake than anything to do with News at Ten.



As for the 10pm situation, as discussed it's more ITV having trouble filling the 10pm slot than the bulletins performance at 10.30pm that was the issue - and here is perhaps where your argument stands up more.


Personally though since 1999 I've found the original 11pm Nightly News to be the best scheduled bulletin - a handy and quick late night round up of the news, especially for those watching elsewhere at 10pm.

I agree with the idea that ITV news time should be different from the BBC's.

However, starting on the half hour directly after the BBC news must cause problems when, like at lunchtime, the regional news is timed to overrun to about 35.

This may not affect matters too badly in areas where the news is 'cat stuck up tree', but in areas such as the national 'regions' it's likely to have a big impact.

Mind you it works in reverse with STV's 6pm news, which normally runs as late as possibly practically to 6.30pm itself with no adverts, probably to impact on Reporting Scotland.

I hope we see more of Lucy Meacock on the ITV Weekend News, I prefer her to Steve Scott on the bulletins. I personally think Steve Scott is better on the Evening News, with a co-host, obviously this would just be on Fridays. I agree about Mark Austin being better on-location, than in the studio.

I hope sometime in 2008 we see the Lunchtime News moved back to 12.30pm, with one presenter, Katie Derham. I'd like the local news re-intergrated into the bulletin too! But thats not going to happen, as it's clear Grade is killing off regional news.

Lucy is a great news reader. If only it would be more efficient for her to read the weekend bulletin from the ITV Granada studio.

As for Steve Scott, he is a good news reader and if Mark ever quits the Evening News, then I would rather Steve got the promotion than Geraint although Steve can grate a bit.

The Lunchtime News should move back to 12.30pm but you can see their logic behind putting Loose Women on right after This Morning.

I dont see why the lunchtime news should move back to 12.30pm. With Neighbours now gone from the 1.40pm slot it has hardly any competition at 1.30pm now. Also ITV arent going to move Loose Women from 12.30pm anytime soon as a lot of people probabaly watch both that and This Morning so having LW straight after TM makes sense.

I agree about only having 1 presenter for the lunchtime news though, as the bulletin is only 25 mins when they take off the local news at the end then 1 presenter is enough.

Why? what damage has it done to ITV's daytime schedule exactly?