ITV Discussion Thread

Interesting views in the thread regarding the channel. I've rearranged the coming week's schedule into what I feel would be a more varied option.

I've axed the 8.30 Coronation Street but kept the hour-long Emmerdale as I gather it's a special episode so that is fine. Sunday's Corrie is still there and the 8.30 slot on Monday is always free for big episodes like it was intended back in 2003.

I've also shelved Wednesday's episode of The Bill - it is in the show's best interests IMO and in the interests of the 8pm slot in general.

Britain's Favourite Dish could easily have gone out in half-hour doses for double the run, and I feel it would do well at 6.30pm with only Hollyoaks and the Regional news on BBC1 for competition.

The News goes out at 5.30 / 10 which is more like the classic 5.45 / 10 system and which IMO works best. The definition of peaktime is the same length of time, but there is more of a market at 6.30pm for new shows rather than at 10pm and ITV should capitalise on this.

Depending on the lead-in and quality of the bulletins, ITV could be looking at around 3-4 million at 10pm for the News, realistically, with 4-6 million going to the BBC nightly. That is a good figure for the 10pm slot on ITV which has been struggling to top 2 million of late.

With the News going out at 10 on both BBC One and ITV1, there is more of an open playing field at 10.30pm for the two channels to fight it out with original, edgier, more adult commissions.

http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/itv1schedule.gif

I only hope this "facelift" heralds the much needed changes.

We in Scotland and UTV land would not get the 6.30pm slot as that would be covered by

UTV live or
New Scottish hour

also midsummer murder can;t be made in to a 1 1.2 hour slot: its either 1 hour or 2 hours, so lets make an hour

4pm Midsummer
5pm Game show/ quiz / New type of show

I think the BBC moved their 9pm new to 10 so it was in competition with ITN news at ten (quite how that works on is beyond me, it's the same information)

anyway the BBC moved their 9pm to 10pm so ITV moved theirs to 11pm which viewers said was too late so they moved it back to 10:30.

I think they tried the same thing moving the lunchtime news from 12:30 to 1pm, then moving it again to 1:30.

The news on BBC One moved to 10 after News at Ten finished.

I don't see how a show like Britain's Best Dish is more warranting of the 6.30pm slot than the Evening News - whether News at Ten is back or not.


Re: News.

Mar 1999: ITV moved from 5.40/10 to 6.30/11

Late 2000: ITV announced News at Ten would return - then the BBC decided to switch the 9pm to 10pm and did so a couple of weeks later. Interestingly "independent television" had years of negotiations in order to be allowed to move their flagship bulletin - the BBC did so with no consultation and just two weeks notice.

Jan 2001: News at Ten returned in it's shorter format, three or four nights a week. Generally the Friday edition went out at 11pm as the Weekend News. It wasn't until a few months later the regional news was integrated and the News at Ten became a half hour programme.

Mar 2003: Iraq War - News at Nine introduced, with a further later bulletin between 10.15pm and 11.15pm.

Feb 2004: News at Ten Thirty established to end the "News at When" scenario.


Personally I see no reason to bring back News at Ten again as long term it would just be axed once more - and moving the Evening News for the sake of moving it seems pointless.


However, if ITV were to shake up their news output I'd opt for 30-minute bulletins at 5.30pm and 8.30pm, with the main regional news remaining at 6pm. In addition, there would be a short national summary at around 11pm, followed by the late local news. This 15-minute late night slot would be flexible to give ITV maximum flexibility in it's post-watershed slots.


The soaps would be rescheduled with Emmerdale at 6.30pm and Corrie at 8pm, making way for a new family entertainment orientated hour at 7pm. The Bill would claim the 9pm slot once or twice a week (e.g. Tuesday and Wednesdays, but dropped for football). Talking of football, on Tuesday nights the 8.30pm news would move either to 7pm or 9.45pm - the latter possibly being the better option.

Can't see any of that happening though to be honest.


More realistically I think CITV needs to be reinstated to weekdays. ITV are supposed to be screening 5 hours a week (I don't think they are though) - and IMO the easiest way to do that is stick CITV on for an hour at 3pm or 4pm and forget about it. Repeats of Midsomer Murders or Heartbeat would hardly be missed - and it free's up their weekend morning schedules for whatever they like.

Those repeats of Midsummers and Heartbeat pull in more ratings than the kids shows - I'm sure the advertisers would miss them from a commercial network yes.

I don't watch them so can't say for sure, but do they actually contain many breaks. I thought ITV treated it as a graveyard slot so many of the ad breaks just contain trailers, with the real ads distributed elsewhere in the schedule.

Well put it this way they must bring in some revenue as every time the ratings rose for them ITV were singing it from the rooftops.

It is commercially more viable. Something like that, or Golden Balls, would do pretty well at 6.30pm - whether you like it or not. Completely disagree with your idea of an 8.30pm bulletin, or moving Emmerdale and Corrie to 6.30pm and 8pm - all three ideas would fall flat on their arses IMO.

The Street must stay in its traditional home at 7.30pm Sun/Mon/Wed/Fri but lose the second Monday outing; Emmerdale could lose up to two episodes, I'd go for Sunday and Friday, meaning there could be an hour-long format at 6.30pm like a TOTP-style music show before Corrie.

The Bill works fine at 8pm but it should lose an episode to free up slots for new 8pm commissions. The News, I truly believe, should go out like so:

- National: 1.30 / 5.30 / 10
- Regional: 1.50 / 6 / 10.20

10.30pm can be moulded into a new home for edgier commissions, classic films and second chance runs of ITV2 premieres like Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Regarding CITV, reinstating it would be ludicrous commercially, again - whether you like it or not, the repeats of Midsomer, however lazy, have paid dividends for the daytime schedules. CITV just doesn't belong on ITV1 anymore. They should just extend the hours of the CITV channel.

I still want an Saturday morning show

It ain't gonna happen. It's safe to say that ITV are phasing out with Kids programmes, as they're not comissiong anymore and the biggest clue is the closure of ITV Productions Kids.

And now OFCOM have the cheek to moan about the lack of British children's programming!