03-04-2021, 07:08 PM
The original thinking back in 1999 was to take the 20 minute Early Evening News format, move it to 11.00pm and name it Nightly News. Then they take News at Ten, move it to 6.30pm and rename it Evening News. Bridging the gap, a short one minute news update would appear at 10.00pm, with a "coming up" on Nightly News theme to it.
This enabled them to open up the 7.00pm to 11.00pm slot for more sport, movies, dramas which would had have to be halted for News at Ten, so you can understand the reasoning behind the 1999 changes.
However for me the 2001 changes was when ITV News just showed how little they cared about news. To be fair, ITV News were forced into changing by the ITC and public opinion, however what could have been a PR triumph for ITV News turned into a PR disaster with the botched job they did.
In Jan 2001 they took the 20 minute Nightly News moved it to 10.00pm and just renamed it News at Ten, even though it was never the old style News at Ten, it was simply the Nightly News now at 10.00pm instead of 11.00pm, with Sir Trevor anchoring to make it look like the old News at Ten.
To make matters even worse, the regional news was cast adrift on its own at around 11.20pm. The Friday late news was titled "Weekend News" and aired at 11.00pm and then to add more insult to the viewer, ITV were granted permission that on 52 times of the year, they could move News at Ten to a different slot to accommodate sport, movies etc. What a mess.
If they had have left it as it was back in 1999 before the major changes, I believe ITV News could have remained strong, but 1999 was the start of the decline for me personally on ITV News.
This enabled them to open up the 7.00pm to 11.00pm slot for more sport, movies, dramas which would had have to be halted for News at Ten, so you can understand the reasoning behind the 1999 changes.
However for me the 2001 changes was when ITV News just showed how little they cared about news. To be fair, ITV News were forced into changing by the ITC and public opinion, however what could have been a PR triumph for ITV News turned into a PR disaster with the botched job they did.
In Jan 2001 they took the 20 minute Nightly News moved it to 10.00pm and just renamed it News at Ten, even though it was never the old style News at Ten, it was simply the Nightly News now at 10.00pm instead of 11.00pm, with Sir Trevor anchoring to make it look like the old News at Ten.
To make matters even worse, the regional news was cast adrift on its own at around 11.20pm. The Friday late news was titled "Weekend News" and aired at 11.00pm and then to add more insult to the viewer, ITV were granted permission that on 52 times of the year, they could move News at Ten to a different slot to accommodate sport, movies etc. What a mess.
If they had have left it as it was back in 1999 before the major changes, I believe ITV News could have remained strong, but 1999 was the start of the decline for me personally on ITV News.