Northern Ireland news thread

I also notice that Vicki Hawthorne is now working for Sky News. Is she freelance or did she quietly leave UTV and move to Sky?

Interesting to see Siobhan McGarry presenting the sport on UTV Live last night.

And Marc Mallett's had a buzzcut, too.

Catching up on Friday's UTV Live, Pamela Ballantine was roped in to do a report on the racing from Cheltenham - I wonder if she will be doing reports on horse racing and rallying for the sports team from now on?

I've been trying to figure out what looked different about UTV Live earlier and I've just realised! They've erased the UTV Live logos from the backdrop, along with a good lot of the 'three squares' design making it basically just a plain blue backdrop now!

Two live link-ups with Ken Reid in Washington on consecutive nights? UTV Live, you are really spoiling us. Unless you are using ITN's connections on the cheap.

And excellent to hear Judith Hill's voice on a report on UTV Live this evening. I studied with Judith at the Art College and she is such a beautiful, kind person and a great journalist. Well done Jude!

EDIT: Pleased they dropped the Eoghan Quiff report to cover something more substantial at the end of the show - but a bit cheap to have Niall Donnelly on his mobile with the OB van down in Dublin with Neil Brittain doing the sport. Funny to hear Paul in a rush say it was half six - as if anything could stop Funtime Frankie and his green-screen-friendly whatever it was he was wearing on his jacket during the weather.

I had to feel sorry for Alison Fleming on tonight's UTV Live, having to clear off the set while Paul interviewed people from Queen's and UUJ - what happened to the chair that was to the left of Paul on screen?

At least she got to do the two-way with Ken Reid in Washington.

And is Pamela Ballantine now UTV's Eoghan Quigg correspondent?

An interesting set-up in the studio on UTV Live tonight; while Logie interviewed Paddy Wallace on one side of the desk, Paul was sat in his usual seat and Lynda was awkwardly stuck at the far side of the desk. She'd eventually moved back to her usual seat after the still-irritating Sharon O'Neill report.

Good blooper at the end of Ken Reid's report from Stormont: it held onto him standing around outside Parliament Buildings for a few seconds after signing his report off before cutting to Clarky at the desk and a DVD menu with the plasma loops showing on the plasma! It's at 13.45 on the first part of tonight's bulletin on the UTV website.

The CIPR Press and Broadcast Awards 2009 happened on Friday, here's the TV-related awards:

(BBC NI)
Cameraman: Martin Kellett

Current Affairs Programme: Spotlight - A Lost Boy

Broadcast Feature Journalist: Kevin Magee

News/Current Affairs Broadcaster: Darragh McIntyre

TV News Programme: BBC Newsline

(UTV)
Scoop of the Year: Ken Reid for the Ian Paisley retirement interview

Broadcast Newcomer: Sarah Dobson (urgh)

Business Journalist: Jamie Delargy

Specialist Journalist: Ken Reid

And the final score: Ormeau Avenue Academical 5, Ormeau Road Rovers 4.

Courtesy of Northern Notes, a blog run by another old buddy of mine from the Art College Newspaper Journalism Class of 2003

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/tvf/dvd_menu.jpg

Looks like they've done a bit of shifting around in Studio 1. It now looks a lot smaller when they do a wide shot and the backdrop appears to curve around the desk on both sides now. Comapre this (taken this week):

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/tvf/utvlive_studio_wideshot.jpg

with this image (from 2 years ago):

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/Caps07/Update34_050407/240px/update34_323.jpg

First time I've ever seen this shot used on UTV Live:

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/tvf/utvlive_studio_wideshot2.jpg

For those who haven't ventured into the 'New Look u.tv' Thread, the new UTV website is now showing the new UTV Live logo:

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/tvf/watch_utvlive.jpg

It also seems you can now watch all UTV Live/UTV News bulletins online, including the weekend bulletins which previously wasn't possible. Something I've noticed, which may be nothing, is that on the homepage, the link to the latest lunchtime bulletin is linked as UTV Live News, whereas the latest main bulletin is linked as UTV Live Tonight. Could a change of name be on the cards? Or am I just reading too much into it??

Tried to edit my post above but doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

EDIT: Just remembered that UTV Live Tonight was the provisional name for the new half hour 22:30 programme. Must be on the way soon then...