ITV News Channel- Why Bother?

Kill me if you must, but I thought this deserved better than being dumped in a 50+ page thread.

Now I don't watch must of the ITV NC to be honest, so I'm sure many of you regular viewers came to this realisation long before me today....there is no point to the ITV News Channel.

I refer to the coverage from 4pm this afternoon- the moving of the Pope's body from those apartments to the basilica. Yes- I'm a bit "Poped Out" myself, but these pictures were actually unique in the history of broadcasting- and regardless of religion (frankly I couldn't care less about the Pope) the scenes of his body being carried through a packed St.Peter's Square were very powerful and unique.

I don't know how or why the TV was tuned into the ITV NC...it just was.

But I sat somewhat amazed as the presenter told me that they'd have more coverage of this historic, first-time-ever-seen event, after the advert break at 4:15pm (about 15 mins in to the coverage), so "stick with us".

Needless to say I flicked over to News 24, took in a bit of Sky News, but couldn't help going back to "the news channel" to see if they'd got their act together. As the Pope's body was about to be lifted up for display to the tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square- low and behold "we'll be back with more coverage after the break- stick with us" rang out at 4:30pm.


So I ask this very simple question- what is the point in the ITV News Channel....anyone wanting to watch coverage of this major event (regardless of the endless Pope coverage recently) would have switched over to a rival network rather than "sticking with us".

Why? I hear you cry.

Simply because no other network took adverts during this "event" . I talk here from my Sky Digital flick-through...no adverts on Sky, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox, Euronews and the others. No adverts but "the news channel".

In fact, I reckon there probably isn't another broadcaster on the planet who decided to take those live pictures and then interupt them with TWO advert breaks bang on every 15 minutes, as if nothing else was happening.

Only the ITV News Channel.

Sorry for the length of this post- I just wanted to share what I thought was an absolutely remarkable piece of broadcasting (for all the wrong reasons)....I'm sure many, like me, will remember how ITN used to rival the BBC in terms of being a news operation- it's sad to see that probably many of these same journalists are reduced to this excuse for a "news channel".

So I ask you all- what is the point in the ITV news channel? Should ITV be allowed to ditch the news altogether in favour of more Footballer's Wives?

I'd say I have to agree on some points here. Practically everytime I go on to the ITV News Channel, it's debt adverts. I immediately change to Sky News or BBC News 24!

I have to agree that their policy of not dropping ad breaks for major live events does the channel no favours at all.

An ITN insider once posted here and said that they were under orders not to drop breaks because the channel couldn't afford to lose even the smallest amount of revenue, but it does seem to me to be an incredibly short-sighted view to take if you are trying to build an audience for a news channel.

They take breaks all the time in the middle of major speeches by party leaders, and other big events like Reagan's funeral last year.

The most persistently annoying thing is that they always leave PMQs at 12.27 on a Wednesday for three minutes of ads before the Lunchtime News. As a result no-one who takes a serious interest in PMQs is going to watch it on ITV News.

Either show the thing properly or don't bother at all.

Anyway, it's a shame because it does seriously undermine the channel's coverage of big events which is often much better than it is given credit for.

Plus, and I know this is somewhat out of ITV's control, but the adverts are all for utter crap. Most times I watch (and I have to admit that's not very often), the ad break is filled with one whole 4 minute dubbed ad from "TeleBrands" or a similarly pointless company. Last time they were trying to get me to buy 5 magnetic door alarms, plus 4 free. You can choose from either a piercing alarm sound or a "pleasant chime" which sounded more like an air raid siren. Apparently you can sleep sound at night once you've put one on "every door and cupboard in your home". Sounds fun, that. Anyway, I digress.

I just think that having to sit through the utterly dire advertising probably turns away a lot of viewers, regardless of how good the actual news content is, once you get to it. I can't imagine anyone choosing it over Sky or News 24. Frankly, I think the channel is a bit of a waste of time and money if it's going to continue like this. ITV need to try and justify its existance pretty soon otherwise it's probably not got that long left...

You're right, but in fairness a lot of the same ads air on Sky News too.

There's a dreadful 2-minute ad for 'Dino Dan and his jungle pals' which was on today, with a woman with a *really* annoying voice, but thankfully that one doesn't seem to come round too often.

"But wait there's more, order now and you get 4 extra alarms free, that's 8 alarms in total"

Don't forget to put them on your 'screens' as well

Anyway this sort of advert is all over multi-channel tv so you just have to put up with them, at least you don't get adverts for Crazy Frog and other ring tones on the ITV News Channel

Only a matter of time unfortunately. I've even seen the Crazy Frog on Channel 4.

That's true, but the ITV News Channel seems to have far more ads than Sky News. As Dunedin and Antz say, they never miss a break, and certainly half the time I tune into it they are in the middle of a break. No point sitting watching adverts for 5 minutes if you're looking for news - so you just flick to one of the other news channels!

Another thing I didn't mention before - that "Breaking News For Britain" tagline doesn't half look tacky...

During a 'normal' hour ITV News has the same duration of ads as Sky News - 4 breaks of 3 minutes.

The only difference is that ITV News are much, much more reluctant to drop breaks for continuous coverage of breaking news or a live event.

Sky News was never designed to make money - it was put in place so that if anyone complained about the lack of British programming on Sky in the early days, Rupert Murdoch could point to it and say "Look, there's our public service broadcasting". It's always been a loss leader, in a bid to give the network some respectability. The only change they are ever likely to make is to turn it into a Fox clone should OFCOM every change the rules on impartiality (and God knows, they've rolled over on every challenge they've been given so far).

Sorry, deviated from the point there, but the problem is that ITV don't seem to know what the news channel is there for. Is it there to make money? (in which case shut the thing, it isn't going to - everyone already goes to news 24 or Sky for important news) Or is it there to provide ITV with a defence against accusations of dumbing down? (in which case, unless they really can't afford it, they should go down the Sky route). At the moment they appear to be trying to have everything, but I'm not sure how long that's sustainable. It only takes a few politicians to get wound up about the issue, and ITV's credability and reason for having the channel is gone.

Excellent points though by the original poster - there was always going to be a day when the ITV News Channel cut away from an important live broadcast for a Dirtbuster commercial, and it's happened now.

"Breaking News for Britain - Except During Our Ad Breaks. Coming Soon, Sweety the Chick"

I assume the quality of the ads relates to the lack of audience....it's the classic vicious circle:

Too many ads = No viewers = Fewer 'major' advertisers/more 'minor' advertisers interested (or can afford the cheap rates).

And of course in the end, ITV want more money, so more cheap ads.

The real point I wanted to make when starting this thread is that I believe ITV were probably the ONLY news channel in the WORLD that took advert breaks between continuing coverage of the Pope's body being moved.

That's an extraordinary statement- shameful for British TV news, and more so for those former ITN journalists.