Good Morning Britain - the launch

The vast majority of the audience just want reliable news, weather and sport. Viewers reward reliability, it isn't rocket science. For example can I ask how many times GMTV/Daybreak/Daybreak 2/GMB has changed the timeslot for the regional news in the 6 years? Look at sport, ignored for years on GMTV until Dan Lobb was appointed, dropped for the most part in Daybreak 2 and back again on GMB. I could go on


Well you should start praying because the ratings are awful. 13-15% shares when the kids are still in school is beyond dire. It will be a massive struggle to get it back to Aled and Lorraine's terrible figures in the Autumn.

Indeed. Just as technology has changed in the last 80ish years since regular TV launched in the UK, and in the last 30 years since Breakfast TV properly launched here.

However 10 years is quite a short space of time. Generations of viewers don't disappear overnight, and viewing habits don't massively change. People have been predicting the death of linear TV channels for ages. They predicted that 24 hour news channels would mean the end of news bulletins on the main channels. They predicted iPlayer would kill live viewing.

Guess what... Lots of people still want to sit in their chairs and watch a programme on a channel, as it is broadcast. (Live Pause has just made this a bit easier!)

In 10 years time, there will still be a large number of viewers who want to do this. Yes - the number may reduce a bit - but there are a lot of 30,40,50,60,70 and 80 somethings who will be 40,50,60,70,80 and 90 somethings in 10 years time who will want to do roughly the same thing that they've been doing since they were kids.

10 years is a long time in technology terms (so delivery methods may change technically) - but not long at all in social terms (so people will still have the same habits etc.) For someone in their teens or twenties, 10 years is a long time. For someone in their 50s or 60s, it's nothing.

I seriously doubt it... more than likely to a news channel these days...

Breakfast is shown on the BBC News channel.

Sean and Charlotte are both off today. Ben, Susanna & Ranvir are in the studio. Ben's taking charge of sport in Sean's absence.

Oops... opt out went wrong in London. The opt was too early and we heard sound from London (and the GMB London caption) but then switched to Meridian and back to the caption and back again...

Is it me, or has the picture quality on the regional news opts got worse? In the Meridian area, there's a very odd filmic effect. This image I've captured is from ITV HD on Freeview:

Quite surprised this morning that Sean is having a day off today, no sign of him out afield or in the studio.

Ranvir is again sitting in for Charlotte.

Not the best timekeeping earlier - the regional news didn't start until 7.30.

On the plus side, though, it looks like the Wheel of Cash won't be imminently returning. Andi Peters was talking about something new where he'll be surprising winners on their doorsteps (Cheggers-stylee) from the end of the month.

I have noticed this on sky. Meridian South East seems to lag. It feels like it's a web broadcast.

Can't go into specifics, but I've just been informed via Twitter that the team at Meridian are aware of the problem, and are working on it.

A problem with the last weather forecast on this mornings programme at 08:15, it seems either Laura was going too fast (unlikely) or the graphics seemed to be stuck too slow, and therefore were wiped off before it even got to Tomorrows forecast.