ITV News

John was never appointed Africa Correspondent, he was appointed Middle East Correspondent. At the last changes ITV News decided not to have an Africa Correspondent. However last week they reached an agreement to share correspondents with NBC and as a result Rohit became Africa Correspondent. The information in the link above is slightly incorrect.

Not correct, I'm afraid - with the reshuffle, the Johannesburg bureau was closed. There was no initial replacement for Martin Geissler as the ITN-NBC deal had not yet been brokered. John Ray left the Beijing bureau and immediately became the new Middle East Correspondent, so your article is not entirely accurate.

FYI: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/01/itn-itv-news-dubai

(While Robert Moore is a great reporter, I think posting him back to Washington was a rather lazy and slack decision. As was making Keir Simmons the UK editor, while completely - and probably intentionally - overlooking the role of political editor!)

EDIT : sorry jonty09, didn't see your post!

After looking back at clips of the News at Ten in 2008, I really do hate the new design. I really don't think most people cared if it even was "London-centric" looking, I mean, it's been like that since the 60s! Big Ben still appears in the set design, so I'm not sure what they were doing there.

It really is a shame the News at Ten lost its unique theme and titles. The stunning CGI backdrop was another thing I loved and preferred to the BBC's News at Ten.

And after one year too... surely I'm not the only one thinking what the point of all that was just to completely drop it a year later.

I think that's mostly the general consensus on here: while there are some members who have grown to like the current branding, I think the general feeling is that News at Ten 2008-2009 was completely in a league of its own. It was certainly one of the best identities the programme has ever had in its forty year history.

I think the current look, while refreshing when initially launched, has become very stale very quickly, save for the excellent music. One thing I disliked from the start was the removal of News at Ten's unique identity - that was the one thing that really identified as the main news bulletin of the day. Watching it nowadays, it's like we've gone back to 2006 or something.

I do think people here are a bit too harsh on the current look, but I do think a huge part of the reason behind that is because of the News at Ten issue and how for once ITV News had got the branding pretty much spot on with that. That said though, I'm not too sure how comfortably the current look and News at Ten branding would have sat side by side, but they definitely could quite easily tweak the current look just enough to give News at Ten a unique identity, yet still clearly part of the bigger ITV News brand.

Sadly, I think BBCNicky is right.

The NAT branding from 2008 (opening titles, theme music, set design, graphics etc) all seemed to say 'big, important news bulletin' - which the network now lacks since it all went generic. There are aspects of the current look that work well - some of the internal graphics used within the programme can look quite good sometimes, and as you say, Dave Hewson's music is great. But there's nothing that distinguises it from the rest of ITV News now, which is a real shame, especially given NAT's heritage.

That said, many earlier posts on this subject have rightly pointed out that the BBC 10 doesn't appear to suffer by sharing the same generic branding as other network news bulletins on BBC1, so maybe its just something fans of TV news presentation pick up on while wider audiences don't even notice?

Fully agree. Can't imagine what possessed the bosses to make them drop that wonderful brand and replace it with the current bizarre set up.

Bizarre? What's bizarre about it?

I personally prefer the current look - the last one was, in my opinion, incredibly dated. I think a few tweaks wouldn't go amiss - I'd neaten up some of the graphics (particularly the name captions) but otherwise it's all very slick and looks good. I don't understand why people object to it so much.

How was it "incredibly" dated? It had a superb CGI backdrop of London which looked stunning during the evening and late bulletins, had a wonderful glass 'ITV News' CGI sign which looked very realistic, and was a brilliant set up.

The current set has obviously fake lights, a crap backdrop and a depressingly dark background of in your face yellow and black. Now that, is "incredibly" dated, in my opinion.

And in the promotion images it looked like a car park, with the bay lines everywhere. ITV aren't doing themselves any favours.

just to add, the desk always reminds me of one of these, with the white and the yellow cubey bit! - http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1393/1393904100_ef98fc127c.jpg?v=1190104812

Image from Flickr

I live in Bristol, and although the backdrop was of London, I didn't really care - it's broadcast from London. On Daybreak, they have a backdrop of London too, so what's the difference?

Yes, the argument to get rid of the London imagery and Big Ben was a very weak and flawed one indeed, especially seeing as Daybreak have a wide view of London (or at least they will when they lift the yellow blinds more regularly!)

One of the problems with the current branding (which several on here have already alluded to) is the lack of 'realism'. The thing about the old look was that, although it was all CGI, the elements of the studio all seemed 'real' - the "frosted window" looking out to London, the "glass" screens etc. Since the realignment, family relatives comment every time News at Ten begins - without fail - that the studio design looks like "walls with damp patches on them". Then there are all the similarities to underground car parks.

Talking about graphical elements, I think the clockface was to ITV News what the globe is to BBC News. Although the clock is still present, it's all but hidden away and it leaves the brand without its visual device... and removes away all of its heritage which, despite the need for innovation and modernisation as the years go on, is needed for continuity and viewer recognition...