It was better then

Is it just me or are we going through a bad patch for TV? After finding an old tape of the 6 O'clock News from 1995 it suddenly hit me that we've really taken a turn for the worse, both in terms of programme quality and presentation.

The BBC (News especially) doesn't know what it wants to be anymore. It has a wishy washy style, with little gravitas. They've burst into the digital era and seemingly lost themselves on the way. Launching two disasters and one money drainer.

The news on ITV has just been going downhill since the removal of the ITN brand. A complete disaster and one that's given us some of the most tabloid news on television.

Sky, well Sky are getting more and more American by the day. Although the style of newsreading hasn't changed so much, it has certainly changed.

Channel 4 have improved. The news is better, the quality of programming on the channel has improved, obviously with the exception of Big Brother.

It's nice to look through rose tinted glasses at these things but looking back even just a few years, there's a marked difference in the style of programming and news. Today we seem to be following in the American's footsteps of cheap programming, style over substance news broadcasting and boring and uninventive presentation.

The Today Programme has survived, albeit with a government that doesn't want to co-operate with it.

I want British television back. Am I alone?

You are certainly not alone in your criticism.

if you enter http://www.tv50.co.uk you will be able to see and hear all the old famous idents from the ITV local regions. And you will also be able to hear the old theme tunes for the news on BBC and ITV.

www.tv-ark.co.uk is another enjoyable website.

Problem with BBC is they are so eager to get into widescreen they have made their news widescreen while 85% odd of their footage is still 4:3, even one year after the switch! Same has been true for CBBC since september 3rd as well sadly. I think if the BBC cant produce enough resources to make something true 16:9 then they should leave it 4:3. If I took over BBC, the true 16:9 programmes would remain so, but the news and CBBC would revert to 4:3 until they got the resources sorted out and there would be more 4:3 productions- 4:3 viewers do till exist!

I agree with you c@t. Only yesterday I found an old tape with much old material on it (ITV and Channel 4). There was a full weekend bulletin of ITN News from 1998 and the way they presented it was so much better. But it's not only the content of programs that has changed for the worse, it's the presentation as well. There was also a 1998 Meridian Weather Report (Sunlife sponsor era), ident and break bumper, and it made me realise just how tacky things are today. Where did it go wrong? (Well actually, it went wrong after 1999. 1999 was, in my opinion, the last year of good television.)

The topic title says it all,I say.

Stu

i agree with most of the criticism - and i find it hard to believe the bbc needs to run its news content down in order to get viewers. i think its just chasing viewers to justify the license fee.
channel four news was good - and is now even better, same goes for newsnight.

itv has gone downhill rapidly - partly due to the granada/carlton influence - where as before the mid 1990s there were several influences (granada, thames, central, ytv, anglia, lwt etc.) all competing for commisions - therefore the best ideas won.

i think ch4 is the best terrestrial channel at the moment, if only due to the fact theyre the only chanel who dare to take risks.

Yes, TV is pretty good at the moment but it was SOOOOOO MUCH better a few years ago. I think things have got better in some respects, but in others it has got much worse!

January 1st 1999 I was sitting down in my house watching 'The Young Ones'-I would never know that by the December,everything had changed. Nothing was generic!

Things have changed a lot since 1997, but i think for the better.

News Coverage has increased, and is no long boring stuff people reading from scripts.

TV Presentation has become plain and simple, Widescreen, ITV has gone down, but i never really liked it.

Creativityis flourishing, and channels are becoming corporate and unified.

Those who are stuck in the past, it must be tuff, but if you aren't willing to change, its down to you.

I remember sitting watching CiTV at christmas last year thinking about what might happen when the christmas idents had gone. How dissapointed I was!!

Oh yes, baby, it's changed. And I think it's changing for the worse. People don't seem to care about the overall style of programmes/presentation now, it's just 'there's your programme, now shut up'. ITV is appalling compared to just ten years ago

Sorry MDTA but I have to disagree with you. The news has been dumbed down, these days there are so many fancy graphics that they tend to overshadow the story. Also, showbiz has crept into the news - why?? there are plenty of pure showbiz shows, how would they feel if there was an interview with Gordon Brown on the Euro shoved in there? Why should it be different for the news? On top of that the last story on the ITV News (and this is beginning to happen on the BBC too) is basically a promo for a show soon appearing on the channel! Why can't we have some decent hard news coverage? Why do the news companies have to patronise us with showbiz and more and more sport to get the ratings up? People watch the news to be informed about world events and if people don't want proper news and to be informed that's their loss but why should the rest of us be dragged down with them?



Creativity is flourishing?! How can you possibly back that up? 15 individual creative regional identities have been replaced with one bland corporate one. Corporate and unified is bad in my book but I can see that is a matter of opinion so I can't criticise you for that if it's what you believe.



I object to being called 'stuck in the past', yes, I believe that TV was better then but if they improved TV noticeably I would be the first to admit it. I don't see why I should jump on this 'multi-channel digital age therefore we should only have corporate identities to please our shareholders and not to confuse the viewers' and let's face it all this corporatism is for the shareholders. Unfortunately the 1990 Broadcasting Act changed television in this country from a well-respected art form into a business environment and it has gone to the dogs ever since. How else can you explain the ever increasing numbers of people that are just turning off or turning over to channels like Granada Plus and UK Gold where they can watch classic, IMO better, television.

Although I believe we are heading towards rock bottom I think we will reach it soon and ITV will have a major rethink and bring back the regions and decent programming which is why they are losing the viewers.