A few months ago, I wrote an article about changes to the presenting line-up on ITV News, and specifically Alastair Stewart. Gratefully, over 9000 people read the article, and now here is the follow-up.
It’s been seven months since Tom Bradby (ITV’s former Political Editor), began presenting the revamped, ITV News at Ten.
ITV relaunched the iconic bulletin, airing a less ‘formal’ approach than that of BBC News at Ten. ITV’s approach is to have more discussion on the important issues, allowing more time for guests to examine the issues in more detail, and to expand the audiences knowledge of a particular subject.
When Tom took over presenting duties on Monday October 13th 2015, no distinct changes were made to the look of the bulletin – apart from the right ‘television wall’ being removed in order to create a more open-plan studio and setting. ITV wanted its audience to ‘warm’ to Tom and their new approach to the bulletin, before making any major changes.
Tom Bradby’s first ‘NaT’.
A few weeks after Tom took over, viewers were complaining that instead of being told about what’s happening around the world from an impartial point of view, they were instead hearing what Tom thought about the issues of the day. Plus, Tom’s awkward presenting style (which was probably down to first-time nerves), lead to viewers asking for the return of experienced presenters, Mark Austin and Julie Etchingham.
With ITV relaunching its iconic bulletin, it lead to a war of words between top BBC and ITV/ITN executives. The BBC accused ITV of running their 9pm programmes over-time, finishing after 10pm, in order for the audience to miss the headlines on the BBC, therefore forcing them to stay tuned to ITV News at Ten. ITV sources called the accusations ”nonsense”. But, the so called ‘battle of the bongs’ hasn’t just been between top executives, its also between the shows main presenters – BBC’s Huw Edwards and ITV’s Tom Bradby.
In many interviews ahead of his debut as presenter on News at Ten, Bradby accused the BBC of being ”too powerful”, and trying to put ITV News ”out of business”. Edwards hit back lauding the BBC’s superior viewing figures online – BBC’s 10pm bulletin regularly gains over 4 million viewers, ITV’s has around 2 million. Investing heavily in the bulletin, ITV persuaded many of the BBC’s top talent to defect to them – most notably Robert Peston (now ITV’s Political Editor), and Allegra Stratton (now ITV’s National Editor).
In January 2016, ITV relaunched ‘News at Ten’, with new opening titles, and tweaks to its virtual studio. The bulletins updated look incorporated images of ‘big ben’ striking 10pm (a nod to its iconic past), and images of the capital cities of the four provinces that make up the United Kingdom – Belfast (Northern Ireland), Cardiff (Wales), Edinburgh (Scotland), and London (England). The theme music was also updated to incorporate the chimes of ‘big ben’.
Personally, its fantastic to see ITV investing money in one of televisions most historic, and iconic news bulletins. Since I was in my teens, ‘NAT’ has been of huge inspiration to me, and is one of the reasons why I studied journalism at University, and am working towards, to hopefully, one day, becoming a journalist. Its iconic stories have been influential across the globe, and its well-known faces (such as Alastair Burnett, Alastair Stewart and Sir Trevor McDonald), made us (the viewers), feel like we knew them personally.
It’s great to see ‘News at Ten’ return to its original look of incorporating ‘big ben’ striking 10pm, as well as incorporating the modern methods of today. The bulletin was famously axed in 1999, but returned in 2008 and has continued to the present day, and long may it be on our TV screens for years to come!
Liam F - Journalist 