[JMT1985]

A couple of observations:

I know it’s not a big (or even medium-sized!) thing, but does anyone else find it slightly odd that the Lunchtime News is called that despite going out at 1.30? Most people have finished lunch by then, after all. Why not call it the ‘Afternoon News’? Personally, I always preferred the ‘News at 1.30/6.30’ names they used for a while - much more consistent.

News at Ten on a Friday - it does seem to get bumped for other things fairly often (but not since the start of the month, I might add!). Thinking back to a recent Clean Feed article - although I think Mr Nairn’s criticisms were perhaps overblown, I do wonder if it might be better to have the NaT branding on a Sunday, when it is usually always on at 10. Fridays could then be kept generic and thus be a bit more flexible. Just a thought.

Technically lunchtime is anytime between 12pm and 2pm, so the 1.30pm news being called the Lunchtime News is perfectly fine. 

ITV felt that since the BBC had their lunchtime news at 1pm, they could benefit from people who ate a late lunch and placed it at 1.30pm. It also helped smooth out their schedule times a bit better.

The last time a lunchtime news programme had "afternoon" in their name was the old BBC News Afternoon which aired from 1981 to 1986 and was placed usually at 12.30pm.

[Ben Shatliff]

A couple of observations:

I know it’s not a big (or even medium-sized!) thing, but does anyone else find it slightly odd that the Lunchtime News is called that despite going out at 1.30? Most people have finished lunch by then, after all. Why not call it the ‘Afternoon News’? Personally, I always preferred the ‘News at 1.30/6.30’ names they used for a while - much more consistent.

News at Ten on a Friday - it does seem to get bumped for other things fairly often (but not since the start of the month, I might add!). Thinking back to a recent Clean Feed article - although I think Mr Nairn’s criticisms were perhaps overblown, I do wonder if it might be better to have the NaT branding on a Sunday, when it is usually always on at 10. Fridays could then be kept generic and thus be a bit more flexible. Just a thought.

To be perfectly honest with you they should revert back to News At One or even News At 1230 but sadly they will say it competes with BBC and would mean moving Loose Women. 

As for News At Ten. They should roll it seven nights with the same branding.  Follow at weekends by a drama or film. 

I do think it is time for ITV News to rebrand and make some changes.

[itsrobert]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the Lunchtime News being named as such. I would consider 12-2pm as lunchtime.

[Spencer]

Technically lunchtime is anytime between 12pm and 2pm

Interesting. Who defines this? Is there a government department that sets the official times for lunchtime?

[Kojak]

Technically lunchtime is anytime between 12pm and 2pm

Interesting. Who defines this? Is there a government department that sets the official times for lunchtime?

There was the Ministry of Lunchtimes, part of the Department for Mealtimes, but it was abolished by Theresa May in 2017.

[Neil Jones]

Interesting. Who defines this? Is there a government department that sets the official times for lunchtime?

There was the Ministry of Lunchtimes, part of the Department for Mealtimes, but it was abolished by Theresa May in 2017.

Indeed, there used to be a bunch of Ministries, before various PM's abolished them all.

Department for Mealtimes was a consolidation of the previous breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper wings of that department in 1992 - breakfast insisted on stopping at 9:25am for some reason, and never happened before 6am.

The other Ministries used to be located in Euston Road in London, Broad Street in Birmingham and somewhere in Southampton, which was relocated to Maidstone. There are probably other examples.

[JMT1985]

So people consider lunch to be 11am or 3pm then? That's eye opening.

[Spencer]

Interesting. Who defines this? Is there a government department that sets the official times for lunchtime?

There was the Ministry of Lunchtimes, part of the Department for Mealtimes, but it was abolished by Theresa May in 2017.

Now you mention it, I remember the hoo-ha in the 90s when Brussels wanted to standardise lunchtimes across the EU, meaning some people would have had to have eaten their sandwiches as early as 11.15am.

[Kojak]

There was the Ministry of Lunchtimes, part of the Department for Mealtimes, but it was abolished by Theresa May in 2017.

Now you mention it, I remember the hoo-ha in the 90s when Brussels wanted to standardise lunchtimes across the EU, meaning some people would have had to have eaten their sandwiches as early as 11.15am.

Was that not largely an invention of the Daily Mail? As I recall it was purely an idea dreamed up by an EU taskforce, and would never have led anywhere.

[DTV]

The BBC also still officially use the lunchtime/evening/late categories for news bulletins and, when they launched their first lunchtime bulletin in 1960, it was called the Lunchtime News and Cricket Scores, despite being broadcast at 14:00. Indeed, these kinds of terms are used somewhat flexibly by both broadcasters - the BBC Mid-day News was broadcast at 12:45 rather than midday and, although initially branded as just BBC News during its first two summer shift backs (1976, 77), remained the Mid-day News all year from 1978 despite being broadcast at 13:45 in the summer.