GMTV boss quits

GMTV's licence calls for informative news, views, politics and magazine style reports. My weekday schedule is basically no different - All I'm doing is making the newshour more formal than what it is now and addiong a new entertainment magazine at 830 to compliment Entertainment Live!

What is wrong with having a newshour programme on at the weekend? - ITV still has its 30 minute bulletin at 530 on Satudays and Sunday's and five has Sky news . This would be an alternative to both Five and BBC with regional bulletins- of which ther are none at present during the weekend breakfast.

A political show at 830am - why not - steal the lead from BBC1's SundayAM and it would be more in line with ITV1's present Sunday morning schedule as well - and that doesn't harm the advertising revenue! Also if what everyone else is saying, is true, about advertising during children's programmes then it would actually be a small boost in revenue!

BIg Breakfast was a pure entertainment show with 2 minute news bulletins. It's remit was not to inform the viewers but to purely entertain. that the BIG diference between GMTV and the old Big Breakfast

I think all people are asking is for news to be news, not Keith Chegwin running round making a plonker of himself and reports that are lifestyle features that are repeated an hour later.

TV-am did repeat lifestyle reports - just they were not shown in the news parts. BBC 1 does the news show, no one is asking for it to become news-like for the entire show, but newshour should be as that is what it claims (and isn't) to be.

You people have lost the concept of why commercial television exists.
Do you honestly think that people at GMTV don't understand their audience and don't pore daily over running orders and overnights?
I'll tell you for free, it's a razor cut operation with items and sponsorship placed at strategic times to maximise viewership, hold on to viewers and generate revenue.
And for the plonker that asked 'What is wrong with having a newshour programme on at the weekend?', THERE ARE NO VIEWERS THEN. Why the hell would a company pour their money on a pointless operation like that. THat's a stupid suggestion, and just underlines the fact this whole forum is FULL OF AMATEUR TELEVISION WATCHERS.

I can remember people calling TV-am cheap, however news was news. GMTV knows its audience, well thats nice, I hope a rival does come along, and with a bit of choice they might find other people know the audience better.

The idea of sections was the whole point of TV-am splitting it into three, (although even Good Morning Britain had more variety and features than GMTV does) serious news, lifestyle and chat slot and the womens magazine show.

GMTV seems to have the lifestyle and competitions in the newshour.. well i fail to see what either have to do with news. (yes news programmes do feature competitions, but its the style of it in the GMTV newshour that isn't good.)

I don't know how anyone takes GMTV seriously. Maybe BBC 1 need to simply stick BBC News 24 on BBC2 and bring back Breakfast Time - which does somewhat prove the point that people will watch "quality froth" not just "GMTV lowest common person, gutter-chav viewer froth" type show, as Breakfast Time for years was ahead of TV-am.

I, the "plonker" as you call me, am awake at 6am at weekends (or should that be 7am where I am) due to work commitments and I would prefer a real alternative to BBC's Breakfast show. You should be surprised at how many people are actually up at 6am at the weekends - there are very few 9-5 Monday to Friday jobs in the UK nowadays!

I may be an amateur TV watcher but I am gald for that as I can tune to another station whenever I want. ITV does not appeal to the masses of the public - 10million for a soap - how many people are there in the UK, 60 Million!!!!

GMTV, again, does not see it from a viewers point fo view - how many viewers would they gain if they actually did a newshour at the weekends - no-one, not even TVam, has ever tried to compete with BBC, especially if it had regional outputs.

ITV, of late, are now trying to compete and are actually gaining viewers (i.e. Saturday Cooks, the new Sunday morning schedule etc...) so it does seem to work so why is it pointless????

i can't believe people still think there are 60 million individuals in this country, with one home each and one TV each.

I think the bottom line is, there is only GMTV on which is in that format now. There isn't a serious rival of choice for that kind of audience.

I know the TV-am company is around again, mainly as a website at the moment, but people loved TV-am when it was run on a shoestring, and didn't look like a bad American News Channel, with presenters who love to throw their political views across at any chance. (Yes Fiona 'Labour' Philips, who has as much presenting skill as a PG Tips Chimp. - and to back up her lack of skill there are on a number of forums lists 'as long as her glum "I'm a mother and life is hard" face' of things she's done to show how awful she is.)

I wonder if viewers actually watch it to laugh at it, rather than with it. The more I think about it, GMTV is almost the real-life KYTV.

60 million individuals in the country is about correct. Now arn't the BARB viewing figures based upon average number of people in an household (about 4 people per household hence 4 people watching the same TV channel at the same time) - it was like that when I last lived in the UK - rather than number of houses.
If it was based upon number of households (including flats, motrhomes, etc...) that would reduce the viewing figures by about 30%

It up until 1977 (or there abouts) was done by homes in millions, then changed to viewers in millions. (I don't know how many people counted as 'viewers' rather than the home rating.)

It's like trying to communicate with a mute deaf person.
Lets try another approach -
At different times during the day, different people and different numbers of people watch television.

Lets look at the GMTV Newshour, and the charge it's full of competitions and lifestyle programming.
A typical running order -

0600 HEADLINES + WEATHER
0602 TOP NEWS STORY
0603 NEWS BULLETIN
0607 MORNING PAPER REVIEW
0608 SPORT ITEM
0612 NEWS ITEM
0615 NEWS HEADLINES
0617 AD BREAK
0620 NEWS ITEM
0625 NEWS/SHOWBIZ ITEM
0627 WEATHER FORECAST
0629 TOP NEWS STORY
0632 NEWS BULLETIN
0635 COMPETITION (30 to 50 seconds long)
0636 LOCAL NEWS OPT
0639 PAPER REVIEW
0640 MAIN NEWS STORY OF THE DAY
0643 HUMAN INTEREST STORY
0646 NEWS HEADLINES
0647 ENTERTAINMENT STORY
0655 AD BREAK
0657 WEATHER FORECAST
0659 START OF GMTV TODAY

So where I ask is the froth exactly?

I have never mentioned the content of the newshour - all I have said was to make it more formal - more like a news programme. Set it within the ITV Theatre of News set at ITN. The comfy approach to the news, the presenters smiley faces of the credits and the very relaxed interviewing techniques and presentation does nothing to make it watchable!!! It is not authoratative enough for it to be taken serious. News is meant to be news not softly softly smiley smiley.

if they don't want a serious approach then why don't GMTV extend GMTV Today to start at 6am, rather than 7am and then there would be none of these arguments over it and it would then truly be an entertainment show and hopefully everyone would then be happy!

0600 Grinning presenters in the opening titles that sets the feel of this lively laugh-a-long.
0600 Headlines, usually done with the "omg, this is so like serious chav fans, you'll love this, lets sensationalise it as much as possible."
0602 Top News Story - one story is better than none, I guess. Although I expect even Playschool may have added more depth to it.
0603 News segment, with yet another presenter, I guess this being separate and more GMTV news like is the real news in the entire hour.
0607 Morning Paper Review, interesting, usually just a front page run down rather than any Sky News "lets discuss these headlines" affair. The added comments of "looking rather gum there on the front page." adds to the story I find, very good.
0608 Sports item, so early in, I guess that shows how little news newshour does.
0612 news item... are we not starting to get into the "omg this poor kid has been attacked by a pencil in school" at this point?
0615 News Headlines.. with over dramatic background music, just to make us all aware that its dramatic and newsy.
0617 Ad Break, more grinning presenter shots to make sure that moment of dramatic newsy thing doesn't make people think its serious news.
0620 News item, Posh Spice drops nail down toilet.
0625 Showbiz item, Fiona Philips amazes Mirror readers by not being two faced for once.
0627 Weather, pretty girl points at a screen a bit.
0629 Repeat the top story to fill a bit of time.
0632 News bit, a bit of news in the newshour
0635 Keith Chegwin/Tony Blackburn remind the world its not really a newshour but a cheap programme that wants you to call an expensive phone line.
0636 Local News, this part usually has news.
0639 Another look at those headlines, but not much detail of the story.
0640 Main news story, lets not get too deep it might confuse the viewers, so just point out the facts quickly incase they get bored and discover ITV3 actually broadcasts at this hour
0643 Human Interest story that will be done in the lifestyle show
0646 NEWS HEADLINES
0647 Entertainment story that will be repeated in the lifestyle show
0655 Ads
0657 Weather, pretty pointing by girl, not too pretty or Fiona may want her sacked.
0659 Start of Chav TV Today, thats Today followed by Today of course.