What should the ITV News Channel do to improve?

Couldn’t disagree more. Whilst ITV/ITN is virtually unrecognizable to those days, I think the news theme and the Big Ben chimes are something that should defiantly live on with ITV for a long time into the future. The BBC has the pips, ITV has the bongs.

I also think the ITV News theme is a strong brand. In marketing terms, anyone can hum the first few seconds of the ITV theme because it’s been similar for years. That can’t be said for the BBC, its just beeps. If you hear the Big Ben chimes on television, you think news, more specifically ITV News. This can only be a good thing for, what some would say, a fading news provider; people trust and associate the Big Ben chimes with news.


Moving away from the theme music though, I think the channel has many pros and cons. As fore mentioned, a lot of reports seem to be just pictures and voice overs. On location reporting seems to have been reduced and this, I presume, is down to money. Sorting this along with loosing and replacing a few of the channels regular anchors would definitely give it a much needed boost.

The problem ITV faces is simple when you look at it. The ITN News Channel missed the initial "digital TV boom" with Sky, coming into the arena years later. By then Sky subscribers had their favourite, BBC or Sky and maybe a few others. These people will go to BBC N24 or Sky News, they can’t win those people, it’s a habit and it’s done. They are now facing/in the middle of the next digital boom, Freeview, FreeSat and the like. We are all now in the process of going digital. Get us watching ITV News now, some how, and that’s how it will stay after the switch off. But they need to get us watching it very quickly in the next few years; otherwise they will always stay the underdog because they will just have no viewing base, just casual flickers. I don’t envy them. There is nothing special about the channel at this moment in time to pull in viewers and they have two main competitors, compared to just the one BBC & Sky had 8 years ago when N24 was the new kid on the block.

I don’t think many of us would argue if ITN where given a nice chunky budget that they could give the other news channels a run for their money. ITN can do the news; they are just being restrained at present financially and this doesn’t seem likely to change in the near future.

In my opinion, with the clear restraints and issues ITN has, they do a good job for ITV both on ITV1 and the News Channel. This simply is a case of ITV giving them more money to play with and as Bob Paisley said “ money-men run ITV now, not TV-men ” so this is not likely.

Give ITN some of the licence fee for ITV News, anyone? (‘tis a whole other kettle of fish!)

Well, I think as many have said the best thing ITV News can do is not try to compete directly with the BBC and Sky.

When it launched under the ITN brand, it did offer something different as when the other news channels did rolling news coverage, the ITN NC offered simple bulletins every 15 (later 30) minutes.

There are obvious points - a more fixed presenter rota is the first thing that springs to mind, while a seperate news channel studio would also help with this.

It's been discussed before but never implemented, probably as it be quite costly, but having some regional news would give the NC a unique selling point. Whether this just includes the regional news in the 12.30/22.30 bulletins, simulcasting the 6pm news or additional news channel bulletins, it would be an improvement.


And finally, a completly different idea - beginning each "hour" on the half-hour. As all three main news channels begin on the half hour, they often have virtually the same cycle, with the headlines, sport etc all virtually playing out at the same time on each station. Even with three news channels you may have to wait up to an hour for the story you want to come around.

Beginning each "hour" of the NC on the half-hour would make the ITV NC different. ITV's main bulletins begin on the half-hour, so why not each NC bulletin. It would also make the studio switch-over times less interupted, as a new "hour" would begin at 5.30 / 9.30pm.

Hmm...replacing TOTH with BOTH......interesting.......

What I meant by Sky being the Times, besides them both being owned by Rupert "The BBC Is Evil" Murdoch, was that they both try to be upmarket and serious, but are let down by their simpering attempt to be mass appealing - The Times by supporting Labour and Sky by delivering their news in a populist style complete with silly pres.

ChrisO - maybe you're right, but a relaunch should be complete, not partial. I doubt Sky will have their current lame-ass theme tune next week.

Anyways.....theres a moot point here surely - when ITV4 launches and the new look ITV logo is unveiled/unleashed on the world, surely ITVN needs a new look too?

don't tell cat that. He'll blow his top and get into a bitchfight with you. That's what he usually does.

Is cat a 'he'? Anyway, ITV News does need to find its niche and go with it. At the moment there is no reason to watch the channel, there simply is no point. It doesn't offer anything distinctive or different. Actually, that is not entirely accurate, it is different, but not in a good way.

Excluding Live with Alistair Stewart/John Nicholson, ITV News Network, another chance to catch up with exclusive reports seen on the ITV Evening News...

Generally no news channel offers anything different during a generic hour of news, its all basically the same whichever you tune into

Maybe they should just hold back and see what Sky do with their schedule changes.

I deliberately watched Sky News at breakfast in the past because I couldn't stand the brain-dead GMTV (or Eamonn Holmes) and the hideously boring BBC Breakfast, and just wanted a straight half hour of news.

If that is going to change, and if personality-led shows are going to swamp the schedule, then I may need to move over to the ITV News Channel. And others, who find the BBC's presentation too boring, may do too. They could be handed a USP without even trying.

I think the big problem is the set. Two presenters (or one) sitting at a small desk in the middle of a huge warehouse. Atmosphere = 0.

It's suitable for the big bulletins which go THIS IS THE NEWS, but it needs to be a bit more intimate for rolling news.

How they'd change this, I don't know, maybe use the theatre of news wall to show the newsroom? It'd be false, but cheap and would help with the atmosphere thing, especially if they let some of the newsroom sound feed through.

The desk also could be changed for rolling news, to improve the atmosphere and also make a distinction between the NC and the bulletings on itv1.

Due to work times I have missed the showbiz updates and was wondering if it was still that Scottish girl with the glasses who does it?

I think in a way using the big studio all the time makes it feel less special. Rather than this is our super hi-tech studio which is so brilliant it's only reserved for flagship bulletins, it's more a case of this is our super hi-tech studio which cost over a million quid so we use it as much as possible to get our money back!


I've suggested before that the ITV NC should have their own simple studio which would have a similar desk, with a background looking onto the newsroom and a couple of plasmas, plus a basic virtual area (just one virtual screen) to the side.


Going back to the idea of starting each "hour" at half-past, I really do think that could work well. The first 30 minutes of the bulletin would be like a traditional bulletin, then at the top of the hour you could have a news summary and an update on the top story, followed by sport and features until the next "hour" begins at half-past.

After the Ronnie Barker breaking news they put the wrong source up on the newswall so we saw the newsroom camera feed (they'd just been talking to a reporter in the newsroom about Barker).
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/newsroomnewswall.jpg

I think the ITN News Channel has much better Studio Graphics than BBC News 24 and Sky News.

They also have well known presenters. Which also has to be a plus.

I think the down side to the channel is the Advert Breaks, i think it seems to have more than what SKY News does.