ITV News Relaunch

They could do with setting things up so that certain presenters do certain times with certain others and that is it.

For example Chris Rogers with three different newscasters this afternoon.

They need to sort out their order of presenters and times. For example...

6-10 Andrew with Lucy
(It's an extra hour, for those that rise early and don't want to watch GMTV, Breakfast or three back to back editions of the same Morning News!)

10-12:30 Alastair Stewart
(with someone Not Lucy to do the updates (plus he may aswell do an extra hour, at the moment it's a waste of time him coming in for 90 minutes!))

12:30 Lunchtime News Simlecast

13 - 16:00 Chris Rogers and Katie Derham
(I quite liked this idea. Chris can still do the 3 hours, but with one presenter, using Katie will keep her in the itv news national team, and gives her enough time afterwards to reherse for the london news)

16 - 18:30 Felicity Barr & Someone Else!!
(Felicity does this before rehersing for the news at 10:30. If they could build a second set the whole show would come from there so that they wouldn't have to switch sets and optimum rehersals for the 18:30 could go ahead. But who could she present it with?)

18:30 Evening News with Mark & Mary

19:00 (I quite like the idea of a wright stuff style debate show in this slot to discuss stories from the days news with viewer interaction and a panel of guests, just can't think of who to present it. It would come from the main set, with a 5 minute headline slot at 7 from a second set or a CSO whilst the evening news team clear the studio)

20:00 Steve Scott & Leyla Deybelge
(A late evening slot for the pair, to keep the dual anchor idea going. Again if there was a second set it would come from there so there's an easy start to the hour and rehersals for the 10:30 can go ahead extensively).

22:30 Trevor Mcdonald simlecast

23:00 Owen Thomas & Rachael McTavish
(just to add a bit of dual continuity for a couple of hours into the early morning before single presenters kick in.

Then from 01:00, Rachel would do half hour stints with programmes such as football extra, tonight with trev, documentaries, and programmes that can be recorded daily such as an entertainment news programme.
Owen would then take over from 03:00 with half hourly news at 3 & 4. At 5, there would be a five minute headline summary and then a programme to allow Owen to prepare for...

05:00 Morning News with Owen Thomas.

A second set would be so benneficial to the news channel as it means that usual service for them would continue (although in another set) and the itv1 bulletins get extra time to reherse in.

Leyla's back again after the Evening News - till 8.

From 8 o'clock it's Chris Rogers, according to now & next.

If that's correct, he's doing a long shift today, 1-4 and 8-9 (if not 9.30)

Leyla's in the CSO again tho. On the other hand at least they managed an on-time start at 7

[ Does this mean that ITN are experimenting with widescreen?[/quote]

I haven't checked today, but at the weekend UTV were showing ITV news in 16:9.

Couldn't agree more - having to share the same set as the ITV1 news is really the News Channel's achilles' heel. It's blatantly obvious when the channel is coming from the CSO, as all the presentation suddenly switches from being dynamic to totally bland. It just gives the impression that the channel is severely under-resourced - something that has been true of it since its days as the ITN NC.

Of course, the problem here is that the studio is just too fancy and expensive for them to have 2. But they could probably work out some sort of compromise - perhaps a replica desk with a regular CSO curtain behind it. That way they could maintain double-headed presentation and several camera angles in much the same way as News 24 did while its studio was being refitted.

Yes, but that costs more money. As David Mannion said last night on LBC, he prides himself on the fact that his channel is cost-effective (5m per annum or something), and than that at certain points, it beats N24 which is run on ten times that amount. They said that much to me in an e-mail a few weeks back.

News 24 is more expensive to run because it runs a more professional and thought out service; the majority of the time on weekdays it is double-headed (only the 11pm-1am and joint overnight service are single-headed), with Breakfast/Weekend 24 and evening peaktime at weekends also double-headed, and I believe News 24's budget includes a rather substantial contribuition to the BBC newsgathering operation, which is MUCH bigger than ITV News (and the rest of ITN's operations).

Hell, even Sky News have more resources than ITV News now (at least internationally, but in recent months Sky News have been significantally boosting their resources at home, hiring more correspondents and reporters to cover home news, so they may well be ahead of ITV News domestically as well, not taking into account ITV regional news resources, which ITV News don't take much advantage of as they should).

Well the relaunch was over a week ago now and to help with archiving, it will be closed at this point. Feel free to create a general discussion thread for ITV News/Channel.

Thanks to all participants. It'll certainly be interesting to read all the comments over these relaunches again in the future.

Is this closed, or not?

Why can't this thread just be renamed?
By closing it, won't that mean that we will have two threads, one for discussion, and one that remains there to view, but closed?

I'm confused, but have set up a thread anyway in expectation of this one being closed.

A shame to end such a wonderful thread.

Gentlemen, it has been a pleasure.