The ITV1 Regional News

Not been here for a while. Had to rejoin.

Anyway. Unless you already know it, I thought this was interesting.

The end of regional telly is nigh.




GRANADA Reports is to be re-branded as an offshoot of the main London-based ITV news bulletin.

Executives at the newly-created single ITV network have decided the north west's local commercial TV news bulletin should be updated to fit in with the channel's new "national image".

The changes are expected to be made early next year and will heighten fears over the impact of a single ITV on TV jobs and distinctive programme-making in Manchester.

Campaigners with the viewers' group Voice of the Viewer and Listener say they have "grave concerns" about the implications of the re-branding for regional diversity in British TV.

Granada Reports, hosted by Lucy Meacock and Tony Morris, was given its latest makeover only in September, with a new set, titles and music for the evening bulletins.

Now the programme, with the local news bulletins of all 15 ITV regions, is to be redesigned once more to include ITV logos and graphics.

Clive Jones, managing director of the ITV network, said the changes would coincide with a redesign of the main ITV national news bulletin when it moves to its new nightly slot of 10.30 early next year.

Relatives

He told a conference of TV executives in Salford that the merged ITV channel planned to create a "more coherent look to the news". He added that the intention was for the national and regional news bulletins to "look more like relatives, and not strangers".

Mr Jones insisted the national makeover would not dilute regional identity and said there were no plans to scrap the name Granada Reports. "It won't become ITV News North West, or anything like that," he told the M.E.N.

"The Granada name has a resonance in this region which we want to keep. This certainly does not mean a diminution of regional identity."

Mr Jones, who is set to become chief executive of ITV News, said the changes would involve using common colours and graphics in news bulletins so viewers across the country would know they were watching the ITV channel.

But Jocelyn Hay, who chairs Voice of the Listener and Viewer, said the re-branding was further evidence of a shift towards centralisation in London following ITV's merger.

"I am concerned that regional identity may be lost in the process," she said. "We are already concerned that production business is being cut back in all ITV regions."

Do we have a source and a weblink for this?

Yes, sorry. It's Manchester Online

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/stories/Detail_LinkStory=75015.html

It fits with this Press Gazette piece which was posted in the ITV News Changes thread:

Slightly misleading when the story goes on to say that there is no plan to change the Granada Reports name

But then Manchester Online is owned by the Guardian

I dont think there's anything wrong with bringing all the local news together with similar branding. It all depends on the new look ITV News will be getting next year.

There's nothing wrong with this - they're following the BBC model, that's all. It makes sense, and it equally makes sense to keep the Granada name, as they're apparently going to do.

Yes, but ITV (hopefully) will do the seamless transition from regional news to network news and bit better than the BBC does at 6 o'clock.

Memo to BBC news: Seamless means moving from one to another without noticing the gap. Not as now, end stab, trail, pre-rec continuity link, then into regional programmes.

Also I hope ITV do a standard regional studio set, modelled very closely on the network one, and not as the BBC did, let the programme editors variate from the Lambie-Nairn created house style for news.
BBC Regional news studios are now a total mess. Some have desks, some have sofas, some have easy reclining seats and some have high stools.
I thought the idea was to have all the sets (bar LDN) looking the same, and only the on-screen presenters, reporters and show names differ?

Yet again ITV is referred to as 'the company', and yet again the Carlton-Granada merger is being treated as thought it wil create a single ITV, which it won't.


Would this be like the savings that could and would (but weren't) be ploughed into regional production by cutting the number of hours?



With the exception of the regional news, all regional production on ITV in England and Wales is comissioned by London with the regional centres merely being consulted, but not actually able to make the decision. If that isn't 'stalinistic control from metropolitan England' (which is a roundabout way of saying 'controlled from London') I don't know what is. Forcing the news onto a single look does amount to the centres loosing some of their editorial control, and I don't believe for a second it'll stop there.


THIS is why they're doing it. If all the regional news looks the same, it won't be generally apparant to the average viewer if it was moved somewhere else. It will probably (very quickly) come down to regions with split news services all being in the same building. Next up from that will be the establishment of 20-odd small CSO studios in London and all regional news will come from there. With that, editorial control is lost.


Well when it was about bricks and mortar, regional television seemed to be a hell of a lot more prevalent. In terms of buildings and facilities I agree that these days it makes very little difference whether Westcountry News is made in Plymouth or in Blackpool, but it terms of editorial control and content, it is essential that the operation is based within it's region, staffed by people who live and work there and so know what suits their region. And for that, you DO need bricks and mortar. Maintaining a small bureau offering content to a service provided by people completely detached from it is not the same.


Means nothing. It was just the line which gets 'ITV' and 'regional' into the same sentence to try and pretend that they care about providing a regional service. ITV's only regional ambitions are to get rid of them - they've spent the last 10 years doing it (along with a regulator which has done nothing but clear regional commitment hurdles out of the way for them) and that's what they are continuing to do. This is just the next step in it. if the ITC (I think they still just about exist atm) suddenly turned around and said 'we don't need you to be regional any more, you can remove all regional variations and really just be one channel' does anyone honestly believe they'd not take up that offer?

The only good thing I'm seeing in all of this is that the cacky watered down look Westcountry News has had for the past 18 months will finally be put to bed.

Well Central West might as well be corporate - blue and yellow meaningless titles and an ITV1 logo slapped over everything. I'm surprised Dan Barton hasn't loved up to ITV1 a bit more by putting an ITV1 logo on the titles - it's everywhere else...even in the virtual set!

I am thoroughly disappointed - ITV regional news is beginning to become a shadow of it's former self in my part of the region.

Just take a look at Central South (dare I say...even Central East) and you'll realise that only the man in Birmingham is continuing to move further towards a corporate look for Central West. Shame.

It did nothing for Midlands Today and other BBC regional programmes, and now we have this bit in between where regions are being allowed to do their own things and ended up with one big mess. And then in a few years, no doubt we'll be back where we started - either another enforced corporate look, or regional programmes at least will be able to have their own looks.

I don't mind standardising some things, logo and colours even - but let the regions chose their own music, titles and studio that best reflects the region. A few shots of "people" in the titles are a far cry from regional titles of the past, Midlands Today contained no less than 19 local landmarks in their pre-corporate titles.

Anyway, as I say - doubt we'll see much change here really. It's pretty much already happened!

Indeed, the BBC have taken on - and rejected - corporate looks before. In the late 70's/early 80's, all national news output had a strict corporate look - exactly the same music (not even different edits of it as we have now), all titles using exactly the same concept. It was replaced with each main news programme having it's own unique look. Then came the virtual set, which reintroduced a corporate look albeit it watered down (letting individual programmes have their own music and subtle changes to the set), then they introduced another strict blanket corporate look over everything, which they have allowed to pieces with only the music holding it together.

Regional news saw the same thing in the early 80's when they all took on the 60 minutes theme tune and featured it's logo to some extent.

They probably will come full circle soon.

This sounds interesting, though it seems silly that they want to change it again, just after the September revamp, though as we know the new look doesn't satisfy everyone's tastes, I think it is okay, but the titles to the show look pathetic. Though I am intersted to know why Granada has been chosen to start this trend, you would think London or one of the smaller regions would have been chosen first.

I hope they don't copy the BBC too much by doing............

Granada Reports

itv News

on the titles. Though really not many people would care as long as we still have the Granada Reports name.