Scheduling of news on ITV1 over the weekend

I really dont know what planet the schedulers are on.

Saturday: Local news 4.15pm / National 4.25pm during the break of Dr.No. Surely it would make more sense to show the film straight through, then have the news at its usual time of 5.10pm, so viewers get to see final scores in the local football matches (and possible highlights) rather than latest scores.

Sunday: National news 12.50 / Local 12.55, then 2.5 hours of X factor before Local news 3.45 / National 3.50. Then Grand Prix 4pm, and Emmerdale 7pm. Whats the point of scheduling the news so close together. Again as a football fan I like to see the local highlights from yesterday but its difficult to do when its only a 3min bulletin.

The usual Sunday 6.40pm ITV News is the highest rated of the week. It would have made more sense to drop Emmerdale and have local news at 7pm, National at 7.15pm.

I agree, and Emmerdale is on far too often anyway. Its needs to be cut back IMO.

I dont know what is going on with the news at weekends. I hope it gets back to its more regular times from next weekend now the Rugby has ended.

Emmerdale gets more than news!

It's all back to normal next week, 1.25, 6.45 and 11.00 on Sunday, 1.55, 5.30 and 10.05 on Saturday

Does Emmerdale still have no ads on a Sunday?


On Saturdays especially the news has become ridiculous, with the national bulletin often before 5pm and then the late edition after 11.30pm.


I'm sure it used to be the case they had to screen one of their evening bulletins between 6pm and 11.30pm - but I suspect like with everything else, ITV have moaned they're missing out on a few quid on Saturday and OFCOM have agreed to their demands.

That scheduling of the news within the film made no sense at all yesterday - absolutely no need to it and it did neither the news or the film any favours.


Sunday's is usually more regular with the 6.40pm and usually 10.30pm set up.

I wish it was fixed bulletins at the Weekend, I remember up until a few years ago the Lunchtime edition was always 1.00pm, but then they moved it to 12.30pm on Saturdays and merged it with the political programme on Sunday.

I find it odd that one week the News on a Saturday can be 11.30am, 3.50pm and 11.35pm and then the week after it could be 1.25pm, 4.55pm and 10.55pm.

I think it's got to the point on ITV on a Saturday now that the News is the last programme before Make Your Play as it's on that late.

Yes, it's usually just a trailer or two. Nobody on here ever seems to have come up with a reasonable explanation as to why this is the case.

Surely the start of primetime on a Sunday evening is not a difficult place to sell advertising space.

I have a problem with both ITV's and the BBC's scheduling of news at weekends.

In terms of ITV, the bulletins are often too far apart - several Saturdays recently have had the late news just before midnight. Sometimes, they move the teatime instead to mid-afternoon.

However, I feel the BBC is the worst offender on a regular basis. Saturdays are generally OK - teatime around 1700-1800; late between 2200 and 2300. However, I have a major gripe with Sundays. I'm out every Sunday evening and because of the scheduling I don't get to see a BBC News bulletin at all (except the lunchtime summary): the teatime is at 1935 and the late at 2200. I go out at 1900 and return at 2230.

I completely agree that the news on both channels should be fixed at weekends and other programmes should fit around them. It's inexcusable to move the news bulletins in this way every weekend. I see no reason why they can't stick to the weekday times albeit with shorter bulletins.

Completely agree regarding the BBC on Sundays. I think it's time also to axe the Sunday 10pm news and allow it to air later to give the BBC more flexibility at 9pm. It's ridiculous if they air a 90-minute drama that sometimes they'll delay the last half hour for the news.




I do think the late bulletin at least needs to be flexible so there is more opportunity to air post-watershed films and drama uninterrupted - but the problem is - and always has been - is that they don't - with both BBC1 and ITV1 more likely to air a film midweek then take a 30-minute break for the news.

Even when ITV1 do air a film on Saturdays they'll still split it for the news rather than screen the bulletin before the film.


After the ITV News Channel closed I hoped they'd put more effort into the weekend news, which in the past seemed to be treated as highly as the main weekday bulletins too, especially when it had a regular presenter. Now, it just seems to be treated as an inconvenience.


Personally on ITV1 I'd have two fixed 30 minute bulletins, both including the regional news, at 12.30pm and 5.30pm at the weekends, with a later flexible 15-minute bulletin around 11pm. I'd then use the 6-7pm slot on Sundays as the main slot for regional programming.


It would be more difficult to fix the slots for BBC1 - and as I said I don't believe the late news should be fixed in order to allow for films and dramas to be screened uninterrupted. In fact I believe that BBC1 should use the Sunday 9pm slot as a showcase for British film, with the late news following.

IMO - I don't know why ITV bother on the weekends. Absolute rubbish!

I think you will find that the bulletin is at 4.30 p.m. on Saturday 27th and not 5.30 p.m.
The aforementioned means the news schedule is:

1.55 p.m. National
2.05 p.m. Regional
4.15 p.m. Regional
4.30 p.m. National

The lunchtime bulletins on a Saturday are surely not appointment to view for anyone, as people are busy doing whatever they are doing on a Saturday

If it encouraged ITV do have a fixed 15 minute regional bulletin at teatime every week and at a time after the football results are in, I would say they could drop the lunchtime regional bulletin

After all the BBC have got away with airing just 1 bulletin per day for years