The Newsroom

ITV wants to axe some regional news services

From 17 to 9 (September 2007)

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GC
GaryC
Showbizguru posted:
So why post then ?
Say something - even if it's overwhelmingly pessimistic like I do.
However you do nicely back up my point about news in this part of the country.
Nothing much happens - certainly not enough to justify the huge amounts of money spent on regional news for so little return.
The days of people rushing home for their tea to watch some feller who spends the summer opening fétes and gymkhanas telling us about fatal crashes on the Axminster by-pass are long gone.


Never, EVER confuse a lack of news on TV to a lack of News in real life.

Bristol based media are a big problem in the fact they are very passive. If its not on a press release and an officially sanctioned topic they will not cover it; Only the perspective from the PR is followed, with a few odd counter points at the end: Never is the question asked why do this now, why do this from this point of view.

News happens in the west. It is just news organizations that fail to cover it.

I have many journalist friends who notice a huge difference on how news is gathered and reported in other parts of the country, and how local bodies (councils, nhs, police, politicians etc) are so used to an east ride they just do not know how to deal with normal journalistic values.

Bristol & the West has a police force with a very low conviction rate for serious crime, low per head NHS spending, very low education standards in Bristol City, the worst trains in the UK, the most expensive public transport in the UkKand the lowest investment in public infrastucture the the UK - all the money goes north. It gets no benifit from returning so many labour MP's

Is it coincidence that the west has such poor value public services AND the most complient unquestioning media?

Local news is valued by people and has the most importent role to play in a democratic country.

The other point about 15-34 being advertises only interest is also complete bull. Yes, young demo's are worth a higher per impact rate and a channel targetting 15-35 is wasting resources appealing older - as the total commercial yeild per spot is dragged down by going off target. So it is a waste for E4 to run, say Countdown.

For mainstream channels and those digital channels for broad/niche audiences all audinces upto 54 have significant value: Why do you think a service like channel 4 'poached' Paul o'Grady? It was for total volume of impacts to sell alongside deal or no deal and countdown. Those impacts (or in simplistic terms viewers) are old and downmarket.

To claim advertisers are only interested in 15-34 is bogus.
SH
Showbizguru
Some interesting points,Gary C - I travel the country quite a lot and watch a lot of regional news in different areas and the problem is that the lack of real news in the West is also matched by many other regions.
Of course big urban areas like London,Manchester and Liverpool can generate decent news coverage but in areas like parts of Central.the South,Wales etc programmes struggle to fill with anything of interest.
Frankly most areas warrant little more than a five minute opt-out from the national news and certainly not the millions currently spent on them.
GC
GaryC
It is harder to judge editorial value in a region that your dont live in.

I do agree with the argument that some of the regional programmes are expensive junk, but the conclusion that this means shows should be junked in favour of 5 minute opts is daft - particually as VIEWERS want more local news not less.

ITV regions still cost too much. Poor resource planning and dated working practice bump up the cost - Its stupid that VJ's are not used more: Why send a cameraman out when the reporter has to edit anyway? Better to shoot and know the pictures then edit the package.

Many ITV news teams are poor at forward planning, this has a knock on effect with choosing craft edit packages, story value and viewer interest.

ITV should take the best practise from the rest of the world and reduce cost/increase ratings rather than create 'super regions'

Dont get me started on BBC regions!
NE
newsjunkie Founding member
When you mention the use of VJ's, the BBC uses them alot. I'm not a huge fan, you can really see when they are being used. And as you say, journalists at ITV (and BBC to a lesser extent) edit their own material. If you have the reporter, filming and editing everything, it gives less time for research and talking to contributors. If you cut the costs, you will notice very quickly the drop in quality. I think the one point most people have here that makes sense is the lack of original reporting. It does exist, but not in the quantity it is required in. That is problem at both ITV and BBC.
NH
Nick Harvey Founding member
Showbizguru posted:
Of course big urban areas like London,Manchester and Liverpool can generate decent news coverage.

Yet it's interesting to see, from Gary's chart on the previous page, that London is now the one region with lower viewing figures than the West.

While the West gets 24% BBC and 13% ITV, London also gets 24% BBC, but only 11% ITV.
:-(
A former member
its strange that the top 2 Local news services in UK belong to

UTV
STV

which of course do not belong to ITN, maybe there a BIG CLUE, that itn are doing something very wrong.

this proves that local news can be better but ther dragging the heels over the issue
ID
Inflatable Dartboard
623058 posted:
its strange that the top 2 Local news services in UK belong to

UTV
STV

which of course do not belong to ITN


Erm, none of the ITV1/"channel 3" regional news programmes are anything to do with ITN, surely? (Albeit that one of them - namely London Today/Tonight - is housed at Grays Inn Road)
GC
GaryC
More factors than just programme performance are at work.

Audience available to watch builds quite dramatically after work.

You can see here the average audience the audience at 18:45 for example will be significantly higher that 18:00.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/cm/cmrnr08/tv67.jpg

In the west and london fewer people are available to watch at 6PM; and those that are are younger or non-working. It appears a higher than average proportion of regional news 'typical' viewers are not watching ANY TV until much later than usual - Long commutes home?

The effect is not so noticable in Scotland, as they dont really work far from home (if at all..) statistically correct, before anyone jumps up and down

One interesting side note Nick may like to speculate on: Why has BBC Spotlight viewing crashed?

This is the chart for Change in BBC early evening regional news share, 2003-2007
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/cm/cmrnr08/tv90.jpg

I notice that BBC West has not done well either.


all data from here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/cmrnr08/tv/
NE
newsjunkie Founding member
Yes, the rest, are run by ING (ITV News Group) though
SH
Showbizguru
Nick Harvey posted:
Showbizguru posted:
Of course big urban areas like London,Manchester and Liverpool can generate decent news coverage.

Yet it's interesting to see, from Gary's chart on the previous page, that London is now the one region with lower viewing figures than the West.

While the West gets 24% BBC and 13% ITV, London also gets 24% BBC, but only 11% ITV.


If you knew anything about television news rather than being an expert on hospital radio you'd know that viewing figures for London have always been significantly lower than elsewhere in the country.
Keep up to speed in this fast-changing news environment will you !
PT
PaceTwinAddict
GaryC posted:
This is the chart for Change in BBC early evening regional news share, 2003-2007
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/cm/cmrnr08/tv90.jpg

all data from here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/cmrnr08/tv/


You've labelled the above graph as being BBC early evening regional news figures figures, but actually the figures are for change in ITV evening news share, the correct graph for the BBC figures would be http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/cm/cmrnr08/tv89.jpg
GC
GaryC
quite right, my clipboard was getting rather full

Change in BBC early evening regional news share, 2003-2007
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/cm/cmrnr08/tv89.jpg

NOW you can see the dramatic drop in BBC Spotlight &Points West i was trying to show

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