ITV News

I always thought it was a bit strange that ITN got away with having their logo at the start of news programmes long after the individual ITV companies had to ditch them.

I noticed some queries about the set and how we do things on ITV News a few pages back. I can't promise to reveal all our 'secrets', but in the spirit of engaging with viewers using social networking, I tweet fairly regularly about life behind the scenes on ITV News, Channel 4 News and Daybreak, as do a number of my colleagues. It may be of interest to some on this forum. Hope that helps!

http://twitter.com/MattJF

Views are my own and not those of ITN, although naturally you shouldn't expect answers or opinions on commercially sensitive matters.

(I realise this post is extremely related to the one above it!)


Source: twitter.com/MattJF

Wonder why this is the case? The opening shot looked like a weekend bulletin.

EDIT: are the graphics in Lawrence McGinty's report a joke? With the bolded words and spectrum analyser-type thing?

Is that because they have all gone to the O2 Arena? The BBC News at Ten started with Huw sat down according to thursdayisa.

Well, that's a bit slack. We didn't have a jib-free ITV NaT last year or the year before that did we?

ITV News is just a joke in general at the minute. Why they ditched the 2008 News at Ten branding from ITV bulletins and a half decent style of reporting in favour of an underground car park and 'human interest' Daily Mail esque reporting I'll never know.

ITV News in mid-2009 was easily the best it had been for quite some time and probably the best news service on TV. Now its at the other extreme and is the worst.

It is. We've discussed these problems to death on this thread (so I'll keep it short and sweet!), but I really do think now that they wouldn't be in the mess they are in if they had kept the content the same as it was before. The look is very substandard compared to before, yes, but if only the content had not changed...

'The mess they are in'? The content? Have you even watched Bill Neely's reports this week? There's more foreign news on News at Ten now than there was 3 years ago!

But on the whole the return to sensationalist reporting and focusing the story to attempt to be personal to the viewer was a big mistake. 'Human interest' just can't work on a news programme without it coming across as though the world is ending. As for international news, there might be more of it but realistically it only gets them brownie points. I bet most viewers could give or take most of the international stories (as most are current affairs rather than news anyway) and would rather hear about the goings on in the UK.

Of course I have - I don't criticise without watching.
Bill Neely's excellent reports = gems in a dungheap. Everything else* is substandard.

* Here's a very brief list, if you want it, as you're clearly not willing to read back through the thread. Poor set, tacky graphics, dumbed down scripts (mainly intros to reports), human interest slant (clearly not working - didn't ratings start to increase once it calmed down at the beginning of 2009?), other pointless 'effects' (i.e., gradients on top of stock footage, often creating the effect of a telescope-using spy), the move to a 'generic' brand robbing the apparently 'main' news bulletin of any individuality, authority or credibility - which it did have until the changes


Agree completely.

I think this is a really difficult one, because there are undoubtedly too many human interest stories and lazy attempts to make stories personal to the viewer. But the reason ITV News focuses on this is because the audience research conducted before the rebrand revealed it was something viewers felt defined and distinguished ITV News from that of the BBC (which audiences told us was authoritative but also dry and aloof).

Given ITV News will never be able to compete with the BBC on scale, reach or resources (it is the largest news gathering organisation in the world after all) there’s a part of me that totally understands why it would seek to capitalise and exploit anything perceived to be its USP. Hence the whole ‘Bringing the Facts to Life’ campaign.

For all its faults (and I agree with most of what BBCNicky listed above), remember there are still some really good presenters, reporters and correspondents working on ITV News. I don’t want this to turn into another of those lists, but for every Tom Bradby, Chris Choi or Keir Simmons, don’t forget there’s also a Juliet Bremner, John Irvine, Penny Marshall, Robert Moore, Emma Murphy, Chris Ship and Libby Wiener, who produce brilliantly measured and considered reports for ITV.

And as newswatcher pointed out previously, there’s been an increase in the amount of foreign news on NAT since the rebrand - which can’t be a bad thing. And that’s not just because of Haiti, Egypt or Afghanistan (although I happen to think ITV News’ coverage of the war and its Tour of Duty strand – as well as its coverage of the Falklands anniversary a while back – has been quite exemplary).

That said, ITV still feels like its missing a ‘big’ bulletin. But I really don’t know what the answer to that is. Bring back the old NAT?

That's a very thoughtful analysis, Sky. Clearly they are doing what they think - or their consultants tell them - is going to win back viewers. The trouble is that the strategy has totally failed and they seem unable or unwilling to accept that and try something else. Maybe too many top editorial management have too much to lose by admitting that their 'strategy' has been an abject failure.
You rightly point ot some of the first class people still employed by ITV News. The problem is that the 3 dreadful ones you mention hold such senior positions. Bradby is Political Editor, Simmons UK Editor and Choi Consumer Editor (though I think Choi has improved recently). And while we're at it, let's not forget the Economics Editor who has admitted publicly she knows nothing about economics. Between them they are more than reason enough not to watch News at Ten when there's a good, if slightly dull, alternative on the other side. Until ITV get this, I fear they will always struggle head to head with the BBC.