It isn't often that I feel moved to stray from my usual business of posting about the lovely ladies of regional news, but this is one of those occasions.
Until yesterday, it was possible to take a leisurely online meander around the wonderful world of ITV regional news: from Pam and Ian in the north east to Fred and Sangeeta on the south coast, via Bob and Sameena in the Midlands, we could enjoy the character of the different regions by watching the main 6.30 broadcasts from all around England and Wales – and on the better regional pages the Daybreak and lunchtime bulletins, too – from the comfort of our own PCs and laptops.
Until yesterday, it was possible to take a leisurely online meander around the wonderful world of ITV regional news: from Pam and Ian in the north east to Fred and Sangeeta on the south coast, via Bob and Sameena in the Midlands, we could enjoy the character of the different regions by watching the main 6.30 broadcasts from all around England and Wales – and on the better regional pages the Daybreak and lunchtime bulletins, too – from the comfort of our own PCs and laptops.
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| Gone: the old ITV Local site (shown here the Anglia page) |
Suddenly, all this has changed. The new ITV news website, released with great fanfare yesterday, is described as a ‘rolling news service’ of constantly updating written copy and videos - more of a news blog, in fact - and the full bulletins with presenters are gone.
For cappers, and those who appreciate their work, this development has implications. A growing number of cappers now use the ITV Player and the BBC iPlayer as a source of their screen grabs, so the number of updates featuring ITV presenters will inevitably be reduced.
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| The new look: how the Anglia page appeared this morning |
However, the issue goes beyond being an annoyance to the capping community. Many viewers prefer to watch a programme rather than fumble about with a 'state-of-the-art' blog-like format. For those who live away from their home region, the ITV Local site brought the comfort of knowing that they could keep in touch with the programmes and presenters who are so reassuringly familiar to them. It so often seems to be the character - the friendly ‘feel’ - of regional news where the appeal of these programmes lies; something that has been woefully overlooked with the new format, which appears bleak and sterile.
All major UK broadcasters should be able to provide a decent online catch-up service in the modern media world, and thankfully the BBC, STV, UTV and Daybreak Scotland & Northern Ireland still upload their regional programmes. ITV’s apparent decision to withdraw its regional bulletins from the ITV Player is in effect a reduction of the service it provides and this ‘relaunch’ looks suspiciously like a downgrade in disguise. We can but hope that the powers that be at ITV will have a change of heart and give us back our online regional news.
Once again a news corporation show blatant disregard for its viewers by stopping its regional news. How imbecilic can you get ?
ReplyDeleteRegional news makes the the National news as it is, with out it the national news would be completely washed over with International stories.
There are many of us in U.K. who are only interested in local stories & many of the regional programmes show local stories that never make the national programmes.
There are still lots of people that do not have internet access believe it or not & are very happy with tv or radio only.
It seems to me that ITV are only interested in showing poor programmes or repeats instead of regional news which is far more important.
However those that have internet access rely on the regional news programmes for their local news if they have missed the news for whatever reason.
To put it bluntly this is inane, & retarded you just have to look at poor Lucy being shoved outside into the freezing cold in February to know that ITV haven't a clue what they are doing, thanks for informative post.
ReplyDelete