ITV News

Brekkie - wasn't the revised ITV1 logo (with the added gradient) slapped on top of the existing ITV News graphics in 2010? Or have I got it wrong?

If ITV1 is sticking with the yellow branding, I doubt we'll see too many changes for ITV News. A tweak here or there, perhaps. Having said that, I'm not entirely sure what ITV's September "changes" are going to entail. Does anybody know whether or not they are designing an entirely new logo (like 2006) or whether it is just a case of same logo, brand new presentation for the four channels...?

I don't see what was wrong with the idea of all news and current affairs being tied together under one brand/colour. ITV seem incapable of leading at all - every time they unveil something new and different they either slowly unpick the idea or drop it prematurely, and then end up with a poor BBC imitation. However, kudos to them for trying something different with the news site - I actually like it.

In any case, a full news relaunch would indeed be most welcome...

I'd be hugely surprised if ITV1's signature colour remains as yellow given the concerted effort to move away from it since the introduction of the minimalist endboards. That said, there'd be nothing to stop ITV News continuing with it, other than dropping the "brand alignment" pretence, of course.

I don't expect there to be a new ITV logo but so little has been revealed thus far.

Ah, Gradient Gate! I'd forgot about that.

As much as some people hate it though I do like that ITV have pretty much stuck to their guns on this and didn't slowly undo the rebrand - should it change in the autumn the final episode with it will be almost identical in style to the first.

I'm of mixed opinion about the current ITV News brand. I don't love it but I wouldn't say I hate it either. The colour scheme doesn't bother me and I actually think the music is the best they've had since the 1999-2004 period. What I don't like, however, are the titles and studio. The titles look very tacky and the studio is too 2-dimensional, especially on close-up shots. Personally, I think they need to drop the virtual reality now. It's time to return to a real set. Look at how much better Channel 4 News looks in a real set.

The use of yellow and black doesn't bother me either, but as itsrobert says the graphics are very tacky. If ITV look towards the Tonight programme to see how yellow and black could be done in a news/current affairs setting then it could look a lot nicer and more professional. Completely agree about the set also. The one they have looks like an NCP car park. The virtual sets have been taken too far now, and would look so much better even if just the floor was real.

Yes, the virtual set in Studio 2 actually looked pretty decent after it was installed in 2004. It had a real floor and walkway behind the desk which looked infinitely better than it does now. The trouble started when News at Ten re-launched in 2008. At that point they took out the walkway and painted the floor green so a virtual studio floor could be added. Since then it's looked far too virtual. In 2004 it had a nice balance between virtual and reality.

I have to disagree. They should keep the virtual reality set - all it takes is a good virtual set design for it to look nice. If they ground the set in reality (looking out to a newsroom/skyline), yet add futuristic/"impossible" elements (a set suspended over the newsroom, or having glass screens, for example), they can create a good-looking set.

What doesn't help them is their propensity for using close-ups that make the background blurry and indistinct. If they made the backdrop more detailed, or reduced the usage of such shots, it would be much better.

What happens if a region fails to opt in ? Never noticed this because STV usually cut in as soon as they can!

I always though contingencies were in place for a nationwide regional bulletin if that makes sense, like the last time the regions failed during This Morning.

You don't 'opt in', you 'cut in' and 'opt out'.

That's not actually the reason!


By "blurry and indistinct", do you mean the way a real set would look given the depth of field of the lens? And you want to reduce the use of close-ups in a news programme?

Perhaps you could share what the actual reason is?