[JMT1985]

Back to the archive - and screen test footage of Barbara Mandell, ITN's first female newscaster, who was lined up to present their midday bulletins (the heavy start-up losses incurred soon put pay to that)

She went onto have stints as a weekend newscaster and reporter, before working behind the scenes on News at 545.

www.youtube.com 

You also have to remember in 1955, British television was limited by the government on how many hours per day they could air - the maximum set in 1955 was 7 hours per day (excluding sporting coverage, religious programmes and special events) - so having a news at Midday along with daytime programming was soon to be shown to be wasting valuable money and so come 1956, most ITV companies focused on airing their full 7 hours per day from late afternoon. The ad revenue was better placed in the late afternoon and prime time slots.

[Tardisrotor]

You also have to remember in 1955, British television was limited by the government on how many hours per day they could air - the maximum set in 1955 was 7 hours per day (excluding sporting coverage, religious programmes and special events) - so having a news at Midday along with daytime programming was soon to be shown to be wasting valuable money and so come 1956, most ITV companies focused on airing their full 7 hours per day from late afternoon. The ad revenue was better placed in the late afternoon and prime time slots.

It wasn't until the early 1970's that the restrictions were relaxed. ITN's First Report (the precursor to the News At One) was literally the first bulletin of the day at 12.40:

tvark.org 

First Report 1970s | TVARK
Home Instagram Facebook X Forum Search TVARK Branding News Programmes Features T…
  Source: tvark.org

[nwtv2003]

If you’ve ever read the book, And Finally - Richard Lindley (2005) the ITV companies when deciding the afternoon schedule wanted the News to go out at midday, so it was essentially out of the way, but ITN wanted it go out at 1:00pm to allow them more time and to get more out of developing stories in parliament and to be similar to how the World at One was set up on Radio 4. Eventually a compromise of 12:40pm was reached and First Report was born. As the programme was a hit, within 2 years ITN got what they wanted and the programme moved to 1:00pm, where it stayed until July 1987.

[JMT1985]

It wasn't until the early 1970's that the restrictions were relaxed. ITN's First Report (the precursor to the News At One) was literally the first bulletin of the day at 12.40:

tvark.org 

ITN would have loved to have had a regular lunchtime news on weekdays, but the hours were simply not there.

For anyone who doesn't know this, in the 1960s for example, ITV was limited to airing 35 hours of regular television entertainment during the week and had 15 hours to cover the weekend, that is just 50 hours of television per week.

If ITV wanted to air anything else, they had to rely on "exempted programming" which was schools programmes, adult education, religious programmes, special occasions/state occasions, Welsh language programming for some bizarre reason and then rely on "outside broadcast allowance" which allowed for sporting coverage. ITV companies were also rationed here, by the mid 1960s they were only allowed 300 hours per year to cover outside broadcasts such as sporting events.

This averaged out at 7 hours per weekday and 7.5 hours per weekend day - and so the companies, after the near disaster of their launch, chose to keep to the more cost effect and advertising ready slots of around 5pm to midnight or 4.30 - 11.30pm as their core daily weekday schedule of the rationed hours, meaning no room for a 20 minute lunchtime weekday news

ITN did offer a short lunchtime news summary on a Saturday back then

[Tardisrotor]

ITN would have loved to have had a regular lunchtime news on weekdays, but the hours were simply not there.

For anyone who doesn't know this, in the 1960s for example, ITV was limited to airing 35 hours of regular television entertainment during the week and had 15 hours to cover the weekend, that is just 50 hours of television per week.

If ITV wanted to air anything else, they had to rely on "exempted programming" which was schools programmes, adult education, religious programmes, special occasions/state occasions, Welsh language programming for some bizarre reason and then rely on "outside broadcast allowance" which allowed for sporting coverage. ITV companies were also rationed here, by the mid 1960s they were only allowed 300 hours per year to cover outside broadcasts such as sporting events.

This averaged out at 7 hours per weekday and 7.5 hours per weekend day - and so the companies, after the near disaster of their launch, chose to keep to the more cost effect and advertising ready slots of around 5pm to midnight or 4.30 - 11.30pm as their core daily weekday schedule of the rationed hours, meaning no room for a 20 minute lunchtime weekday news

ITN did offer a short lunchtime news summary on a Saturday back then

This article from Transdiffusion shows that there was an early lunchtime bulletin from ITN in 1964:
transdiffusion.org 

Tonight’s ABC Midlands… in 1964 - Schedules - Transdiffusion Broadcasting System
A look at what was on in the Midlands on Saturday 26 September 1964
  Source: transdiffusion.org

[lookoutwales]

With the death of OJ Simpson in mind, a reminder of how ITN covered the trial verdict live in 1995.

I don’t know if they planned to stay on air if he was found guilty but within ten minutes, the network’s gone it’s separate ways for regional news (or Home and Away) and John Suchet’s mystery studio guest has contributed the lump sum of absolutely nothing.

youtu.be 

This video can only be viewed on YouTube.

[JMT1985]

This article from Transdiffusion shows that there was an early lunchtime bulletin from ITN in 1964:
transdiffusion.org 

Which is what I said yes - I think offering a lunchtime news summary on a Saturday was a nice way to lead into the sport. Also the 4 minutes of news wasn't going to eat too much into the regulated amount of hours they could use.

Still amazes me how restrictive television hours was until 1972, and all government mandated - other countries at the time had limited television hours simply due to budget, the fact was British television, especially ITV had a lot more programming they could air, but not enough broadcasting hours to air it until 1972.

[lookoutwales]

More behind the scenes footage of News at Ten - this time from 1971.

www.youtube.com 

ITN have uploaded as a tribute to veteran director Diana Edwards-Jones, whose death was announced on Monday. She was 91.

pressgazette.co.uk 

ITN 'trailblazer' Diana Edwards-Jones dies aged 91 - Press Gazette
ITN's first News at Ten editor Diana Edwards-Jones, described as a "tr…
  Source: pressgazette.co.uk

[Brekkie]

She is credited with "inventing" the bongs.
twitter.com 

[James2001]

That telecine machine looks archaic, pretty much a projector aimed at a camera! I know that's in essence what a telecine is anyway, but that one really does look almost ramshackle, with the path between camera and projector open to air.