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Brand realignment onwards (October 2009)

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AL
Alex
A little disappointing as I was looking forward to Katie presenting the News at Ten.
I'm sure there will be plenty more holidays between now and the election, and had it not been for today being Donal MacIntyre's first day on London Tonight I imagine that Katie would have presented all three of the national bulletins and Mary could have taken her day off.
NE
newsatten
skynewsfreak posted:


Is she in Paris for the election campaign, or have ITV let her go on holiday during a major campaign that ITV will be hoping to pull in more viewers than ever?


should think it's for the election or mabye for Tonight?
Alex posted:
A little disappointing as I was looking forward to Katie presenting the News at Ten.
I'm sure there will be plenty more holidays between now and the election, and had it not been for today being Donal MacIntyre's first day on London Tonight I imagine that Katie would have presented all three of the national bulletins and Mary could have taken her day off.

not really though, the will want to keep each presenter on their "own" bulletin as much as they can. apart from NAT they have done.

also, just saw the promo for NAT - they could have at least given Mary a step! Laughing
TV
TV Geek
Brekkie posted:
I generally defend presenting on location as for the big stories IMO it does make a difference - but I think much of today's coverage on all channels would have been served better coming from the studio - especially when you have other channels doing the same thing next door to you.

Downing Street especially has been rather pointless other than for the focus on the prize - but we all know what number 10 looks like anyway. A bit more point at Westminster as there have been politicians floating about throughout the day, but I think for the Evening bulletins they could have returned to the studio - or at least done as they did at Lunchtime and had one host at Westminster and one at Downing Street.

Did they say who is presenting News at Ten - Katie and Mark are listed, but Nina was down on the EPG to do the Evening News. I'm surprised really any news organisation would have given time off to their most senior employees over this six week period or so.


I think the 1.30pm and 6.30pm bulletins coming from Downing Street were fine (especially 1.30pm) due to possible breaking news but 10pm bulletin coming from there is pushing it a bit. Although I guess costs comes into it, and its probably cheaper for them to just stay outside No.10 all day especially as News at Ten gets low ratings anyway.
AL
Alex
sstripling posted:
they will want to keep each presenter on their "own" bulletin as much as they can.

I don't think this has anything to do with 'own' bulletins - there's no question that Mary will present her 'own' bulletin if she is around for it, it's just that she wasn't due to be around for it. It's not of any great interest though, she has clearly rescheduled her day off.

As for Julie - I think she has gone to Paris for the Easter holidays.
(If she has been able to swing a holiday in Paris on expenses, on the back of a UK general election... well Shocked )
TV
TV Geek
If Julie is away then their only other option was Mary anyway so she probably had no choice but to change her day off. Its probably quite vital that Katie did todays London Tonight because of the new presenter, and Nina is merely a stand in. When a big story like today breaks, its obvious ITV would want to push their 'faces of ITV News'.

Then just be logical about things. If Mary presented the 6.30pm bulletin and the 10pm bulletin was going to basically be a rehash filmed on location then it just makes more sense to keep Mary there, as nice as it would be to see Katie doing News at Ten. Bit surprised she didn't do the 'other news' section though.
Last edited by TV Geek on 6 April 2010 10:30pm
NW
nwtv2003
That's a first, a full mention plug for the STV and UTV websites...! Shocked
AL
Alex
TV Geek, I agree, that seems likely to be the thinking behind the move.

TV Geek posted:
Bit surprised she didn't do the 'other news' section though.

Katie? It wouldn't have made sense to keep her there just for that, instead she came in early and co-presented the lunchtime news, which I think represented a much better use of her time.

(BTW, Donal MacIntyre is presenting the late London Tonight bulletin. It would have appealed to my childish sense of humour if they'd had him in a pod still going round on the London Eye Smile).
Last edited by Alex on 6 April 2010 10:45pm
BR
Brekkie
TV Geek posted:
Brekkie posted:
I generally defend presenting on location as for the big stories IMO it does make a difference - but I think much of today's coverage on all channels would have been served better coming from the studio - especially when you have other channels doing the same thing next door to you.

Downing Street especially has been rather pointless other than for the focus on the prize - but we all know what number 10 looks like anyway. A bit more point at Westminster as there have been politicians floating about throughout the day, but I think for the Evening bulletins they could have returned to the studio - or at least done as they did at Lunchtime and had one host at Westminster and one at Downing Street.

Did they say who is presenting News at Ten - Katie and Mark are listed, but Nina was down on the EPG to do the Evening News. I'm surprised really any news organisation would have given time off to their most senior employees over this six week period or so.

I think the 1.30pm and 6.30pm bulletins coming from Downing Street were fine (especially 1.30pm) due to possible breaking news but 10pm bulletin coming from there is pushing it a bit. Although I guess costs comes into it, and its probably cheaper for them to just stay outside No.10 all day especially as News at Ten gets low ratings anyway.

Let's just hope they've not spent the day digging the awful 2005 election desk out of the scrap heap!


TV Geek posted:
If Julie is away then their only other option was Mary anyway so she probably had no choice but to change her day off. Its probably quite vital that Katie did todays London Tonight because of the new presenter, and Nina is merely a stand in. When a big story like today breaks, its obvious ITV would want to push their 'faces of ITV News'.

Then just be logical about things. If Mary presented the 6.30pm bulletin and the 10pm bulletin was going to basically be a rehash filmed on location then it just makes more sense to keep Mary there, as nice as it would be to see Katie doing News at Ten. Bit surprised she didn't do the 'other news' section though.

The thing is though it's not an unexpected breaking story - it's been known for months they should have their top team around today. It does look like though Julie has somehow got this week off.
AL
Alex
Brekkie posted:
The thing is though it's not an unexpected breaking story - it's been known for months they should have their top team around today. It does look like though Julie has somehow got this week off.

With Katie there and Mary available at short notice they did have their top team around and plenty of cover for Julie's holiday. They're certainly not any more short-staffed than they would be if either Katie or Mary were on holiday.
They have been trailing the probable election date for a week or so, so presumably they have considered the situation and were happy for Julie to continue with her holiday plans.
Last edited by Alex on 7 April 2010 11:15am - 2 times in total
AN
Andrew Founding member
I'm sure there is ample time for Julie to be involved in the coverage. Mary presenting two bulletins is hardly a problem.

Nina is doing GMTV this week, so I doubt we will see her on ITV News.
AL
Alex
Andrew posted:
Nina is doing GMTV this week, so I doubt we will see her on ITV News.

I think we would have seen her today but for the election announcement so there's a fair chance that we'll still see her on Friday's London Tonight.
NI
Nicky
TV Geek posted:
...and its probably cheaper for them to just stay outside No.10 all day especially as News at Ten gets low ratings anyway.


Yes, 3 to 5 million viewers is notoriously low. Rolling Eyes It does very well considering it's up against the established BBC alternative.

Brekkie posted:
Let's just hope they've not spent the day digging the awful 2005 election desk out of the scrap heap!


I believe the current desk is to be used amid a dark studio setting - but perhaps someone more in the know could fill us in?

Alex posted:
Andrew posted:
Nina is doing GMTV this week, so I doubt we will see her on ITV News.

I think we would have seen her today but for the election announcement so there's a fair chance that we'll still see her on Friday's London Tonight.


Yes and I believe her to be presenting this weekend's national news bulletins?

So this is how non-news election programming looks so far:

- "Tonight" Election specials, beginning this Thursday
- "The First Election Debate"
- "Campaign 2010 with Jonathan Dimbleby", weekly from Thursday 15, post-NaT

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