ITV News Channel

Really? The camera zoomed in on the distinct Charing Cross station building, and he told the viewers that it was Victoria station!

I've got to be very careful here, for obvious reasons, but it is my opinion that he comes across as slightly self important. That's MY OPINION and no one can take that away from me.

Did Leeds take over the playout for the whole of ITV1 if LNN was down?

Well I think the cause is Mr Blair:

1) Either so that he can say to Bush that he is not alone in the War against Blackouts and that the UK and US should stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight against darkness.

"Have you had a power cut Tony?"
"Yes, have you?"
"Yes - oh thats us in common then!"

OR

2) Mr Blair organised it to divert media attention from his appearance at the Hutton Inquiry; and the fact his pm'ship is going downhill.

I suppose you have dropped in on the ITVNC for a few minutes for the first time in weeks and have come up with THAT comment!

He has held this last hour together on th ITVNC whereas BBC and SKY had trawled out its pre-recorded Hutton footage.

OK he named the station incorrectly BIG DEAL - all news presenters make mistakes and he did correct himself when someone told him in his ear!

I think that the ITV NC only stayed with it because they caused it in an attempt to increase their ratings and credibility!

Isnt that the EXACT point of commercial television?

In fairness, Mr Rogers didn't just sit there and repeat the same three sentences over and over with no new information [BBC, anyone?]

He [or the ITV team] had loads of different cameras about the place, and several different people, reporters and public, to talk to, plus graphics to accompany etc. The other two just put a breaking news thingyo up and repeated themselves.

I'm not sure I'd like to work in the gherkin, it all looks very conspicuous.

Just spotted: an old-skool Sky News umbrella in the background of an interview with a punter in Central London. (keeping the lights dry, by the looks of it)

Grrrr, bloody power-cuts! I had to walk 25 mins in the rain because the underground train I was on couldn't get to it's destination because the platforms there were full. Having said this, this is nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands of people stranded in London who commute from elsewhere and no-where near as bad as those stuck underground on the tube.

Overall I think all news channel coverage has been good - it has highlighted the different ways the channels handle things like this:

The BBC immediately got Nick Thatcher on the case, so he was constantly on top of all official announcements from different organisations. They also used a couple of BBC staff who had phoned into the office on the way home. In the 2nd half of the hour to 8pm they managed to utilise BBC LDN's traffic camera's to bring good live pictures from locations in central London.

The ITV News Channel was presented brilliantly by Chris Rogers IMHO - he handled the story well and with the competence of a much more experience broadcaster. They used a couple of correspondents, including an LNN reporter on their mobile.

Sky News concentrated their efforts around Westminster where one of their reporters was on the phone. I may be wrong, but I think they were the first to have a spokesperson from an official organisation directly affected (London Underground). They also had one of their producers (Pete Lowe) on the phone talking about his experience.

Overall, quite good I think - I got good information from all organisations.

I just had to watch Fox News. "A dreary evening in London England - what a surprise. Our friends at Sky News reporting the blackout in London, affecting the London Subway. You can see from this map the main subway stations - Waterloo and Victoria on the map there, that one in the north I don't know how to pronounce, I think it's pronounced like Houston but without the H. You can see from the pictures it's raining - let's go to the Fox WeatherCentre to see how the Brits will cope with this power cut."

Aaaaarrrgggghhhhh!

It's hard to resist watching Fox in these situations, isn't it? It's just so awful it's funny.

The weather map was great. It had "STORMY" on it, a giant "THUNDER" and "RAIN" flashing, all the while the forecaster was telling viewers that there "wasn't much to worry about on the weather front".

ITV were just slightly at an advantage here, being located right in the area where the power cut occurred, as well as having LNN's camera on top of the LWT building. Sky had an interview with Livingstone, though, who customarily blamed the government for this. Why is it NEVER your fault, Ken?

Are you sure they are LDN's traffic cameras? Might it not be the case that LDN just pay AA/RAC/Met Police for the use of some of them? I don't, I'm just guessing at that, but it'd be one hell of a job to set up all of those.

But yes - a sense of proportion, please. It was a good story in the sense that it allowed the networks to test their ability to get pictures across London (ITV winning, Sky losing, although presumably not when they bother to use their helicopter) but other than that it's a bit of nonsense news.

LDN use them every morning during Breakfast to show the traffic situation. Mike Embery said that they were BBC London's cameras "usually used to show the traffic situation" - although I was sceptical.

I imagine that they belong to some transport organisation and BBC LDN have some agreement to have FULL access to their systems for broadcast.