ITV News

When Britain's Got Talent aired between 8:30 and 10pm in early 2009, News at Ten (pre-'brand alignment') beat the BBC most nights that week - maybe even every night. One bulletin rated 6m against the BBC's 3m.

It hasn't happened since - why?

I can understand the reasoning for placing Superstar in the 9pm - 10:30pm slot rather than the 8:30 - 10pm slot. Corrie has been shifted around a hell of a lot lately due to football coverage so ITV will want some more consistent scheduling as far as the soaps are concerned. It's better to disrupt the news schedule for a few days from their point of view than shift the Monday/Friday eps of Corrie yet again, so I can understand the news moving to 10:30 for that week. However, there was such a fuss around bringing News at Ten back in 2008 that it just seems slack from a viewer's perspective to then move it from its slot for other programming - regardless of changes in ITV management since the bulletin's return. It smacks of News at When... but I do realise it's difficult for ITV to build up a respectable reputation for their news coverage when they are a commercial broadcaster with other obligations to fulfil.

I know this will sound like a stuck record but it would have been nice for the 2008 relaunch brand to stay a little longer to see if it could improve its ratings.

Well I do agree with you - and perhaps the 2009 rebrand would have been a bit more accepted had it come a year later. There was a rumour at the time that the then-incoming programme director Peter Fincham was not a News at Ten fan and pushed the realignment. It was just a rumour so don't take it as gospel, but the two events (his joining ITV and the news changes) did coincide remarkably well.

I read people posting about "a lot of blue" in the regional news thread, but have failed to find the original claims about this.

ITV News will probably rebrand alongside the wider revamp of ITV1, 2, 3 and 4.

Well I mentioned the lots of blue and the original claims come from me!

Totally agree. The traditional News at Ten theme and titles was recognisable by everyone, I can't understand why they would ditch it. I they bring it back.

Basically because the programmes they put on in the 9am slot don't beat the BBC on a regular basis. They need to have a consistently high rating at 9am to give them a lift into the news. Just beating the BBC once or twice a week is not good enough, views need to get into the habit of watching News at Ten and if there isn't a big enough inherited audience then they won't do it.

But moving the news to 10.30 for an entertainment programme just undermines the programme.

To be honest, I think once they axed News at Ten in 1999 (and again in 2004) and the BBC took the 10pm slot, ITV should have stuck with 10:30pm. There's absolutely no point in going up against the BBC anymore. The days of News at Ten being Britain's most watched news bulletin are long gone. People seem to gravitate to the BBC by default these days, no doubt helped in part by ITV's ridiculous decision to axe News at Ten and water down the ITN brand in 1999. They may as well cut their losses and move it back to 10:30pm - at least that way it won't be directly competing with BBC News and might even catch some of the BBC's audience who want to see alternative coverage of a particular story. I have to say I always found the News at 10:30 to be quite enjoyable during Trevor's (and later Mark's) tenure. 10pm is usually a bit early for me, I'm usually doing other things at that time but a 10:30pm bulletin leading up to bed at 11pm would hit the spot.

I do admire ITV for bringing back News at Ten in 2008 - if they hadn't ruined it so quickly I think it might have stood a chance eventually. It did at least have some credibility by distancing itself from the ITV brand and making use of the programme's iconic heritage, like the music, bongs, Trevor etc. But they obviously panicked too quickly and put an end to it. It was probably a victim of the modern need for constant rebrands every couple of years. Whatever happened to letting a brand establish itself? ITN kept the same brand for years and years and it never did any harm. The News at 5:45 looked exactly the same for 12 years!! Credit to the BBC where it's due - although some people think the BBC's current brand is boring, I actually like it and it's good to see them sticking with it for a substantial period of time. It helps people to become more familiar with their product - something which ITV don't seem to want to do anymore.

Well this argument comes up every time that ITV move the news for any purpose. But the consequence of a move to 10.30pm has impact on the wider schedule. There is no programming to fill the 10pm - 10.30pm slot, and anything they do schedule there will get buried or is likely to perform worse than the news would.

ITV won't want to be commissioning a range of programming for that slot, it's easier to put out the news then play a film or repeats. They could of course restructure the rest of the schedule, but they won't want a drama to play out 9.30pm to 10.30pm because it would be uncompetitive against the other broadcasters who schedule programming at 9pm (unless they put Corrie at 9pm - & that could potentially be disastrous for the soap).

You're right, of course, ITV have tried 10.30pm and couldn't find anything suitable for the 10pm slot. I think they're stuck in a rut that they can't get themselves out of because the competition has closed in around them. Ironically, they started the ball rolling by axing News at Ten in 1999. NAT used to have respectable ratings up until that point; the BBC Nine O'Clock News was rather early for a news broadcast, after all. If they hadn't got rid of NAT back then their decline might never have happened in the way it has.

Looks like all of the bullitens (possibly not the 5.30) use the proper title sequence transition, where the camera comes alongside the panels and a seamless transition to the right of the studio, rather than the camera going through the panels at a angle then the final panel splitting in half and the map being skewed.

They just went to a split screen rather than using the studio wall when going to Lucy Manning in Westminster