Latest proposals for ITV

Can't see that working, CI has it's own distinctive sports which would go down like a lead balloon in England.

Rijowhite's plan seems to involve dropping the most popular ITV News bulletin of the day - absolute nonsense.

Probably not. Besides which many islanders may not like the idea of the mainland interfering.

I think in general what is needed is a semi-federal split with England following the schedule I outlined a few posts ago and Wales, Scotland and Ulster maybe having their own in house bulletins with input from ITN.

With all due respect to the Channel Islands. There isn't enough to sustain a 15 minute bulletin, let alone 30.

STV may just opt-out entirely. Wales could make a decent fist of it and possibly UTV.

But I think a plausible format would be a split ITV network with the following schedule:


6.00.NATIONAL/WORLD HEADLINES followed by REGIONAL NEWS HEADLINES
6.02 to 6.22 NATIONAL NEWS
6.22 to 6.35 REGIONAL NEWS (Channel Islands probably pre-recorded with mixture of news, sport and "community news". Wales and UTV would follow the national pattern)
6.35 TO 6.40 SPORTS NEWS

6.40 TO 6.50 IN DEPTH REPORTS
6.50 CLOSING HEADLINES
6.52 NATIONAL WEATHER

(STV would have a national "Scotland at Six" for 1 hour)

Ne1L C, sorry I couldn't quote your post, something to do with someone posting a huge post previously methinks (me, oops). Anyway I think you're potentially on the right path. I could see a STV hour long opt-out 'Scotland At Six' happening at some point (or Scotland being independent!). It's UTV, ITV Wales and ITV Channel Islands that could potentially be the problem (with UTV still being independent and ITV's promises to keep the 30 minute programme for Wales and the Channel Islands). There doesn't appear to be an easy solution. That was why with my idea '35 minutes' I was trying to merge the Regional and National/International News into one Regionally presented/produced/edited programme (as STV/UTV are less likely to moan about gaining 5 minutes...). Anyway as stated I think Ne1L C is potentially on the right path. Knowing the above and using Ne1L C's proposal as the base, maybe something like this could work (keeping STV in the mix)...

18:00 ITV NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS.
18:13 ITV REGIONAL NEWS/ITV WALES NEWS/ITV CHANNEL ISLANDS NEWS/STV NEWS/UTV NEWS incorporating the REGIONAL SPORT and REGIONAL WEATHER FORECAST.
18:33 LIGHTER STORIES FROM ITV'S ENGLISH REGIONS (Back in London, shown throughout ITV's English Regions only). ITV Wales/ITV Border/STV/UTV and Channel Islands have 30 minutes programmes as current or per ITV's proposal.
18:43 ITV SPORTS NEWS.
18:47 AND FINALLY.
18:52 NATIONAL WEATHER.

I did read somewhere (might have been here) that one idea was to reduce the national and local news to 15 minutes each and fill the rest of the hour with some game show.

Please god, No.

I think the plan was to launch a rival to The One Show and have Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley present it. I think it was scrapped when the ITV Newshour plan was scrapped last year..

Phew!. In response to your second point. Surely these plans will lead to an ITV Newshour?

The chance to launch a ITV Newshour surely has been missed with the ITV News relaunch back in January.
New look & format change at the same time would have been best?!?!?!

Excellent point. Having said that though ITN's had about 3 facelifts in the last 4 years so never say never.

The news hour effectively is there anyway, the graphics are remotely the same. "You're watching ITV News for the region , the news continues with the national and international headlines at 6.30" line that is used when introducing the 6.30 promo and the closing line without goodbye's in most regions make it appear as if the hour is linked.

How do you know - you're in the Central region. In all honesty throughout history there probably hasn't been enough to sustain a 30 minute show every night in most regions but that's no reason to axe it - it needs to be there for the nights when regions can fill 30 minutes and more and there is plenty of filler of interest to (some) local viewers to fill the rest. Hiding behind costs just doesn't wash it now ITV are very much back in the black - they are making enough money elsewhere to continue to invest in local news, even if it is ran at a loss.

I agree wholeheartedly that there must be provision for local news. The key word there is news. A 15 minute slot during a unified programme for all the regions based on the weekend bulletins would I think be best.

Then more light hearted items would have their own slot.

NB I live in the Yorkshire area. I've seen Channel TV via Sky