[itsrobert]

Upgrading the news studios at ITN will be interesting, as there are only three studios there now, Studios 1 and 2 in the basement and then Studio 6 overlooking the atrium, which I never understood why they never renamed it to Studio 3 once the original Studios 3, 4 and 5 were decommissioned?

Studio 1 is the current ITV national news studio and ITV News London studio, so if there was an upgrade, where would they be kicked out too?  Studio 2 is block booked for Channel 5 News and Jeremy Vine show, with Studio 6 home to Channel 4 News.

There isn't any other studio available, which is why after the power problems at ITN in April 2022, ITV national news had to move to Leeds, which is amazing to think ITN didn't have another studio in London to use.

There is also Studio 7, a small green screen studio used by ITN Productions.

[Newshound47]

They must have a contingency plan just in case the building can’t be used for an extended period of time because of a fire or flood or some other disaster.

[London Lite]

They must have a contingency plan just in case the building can’t be used for an extended period of time because of a fire or flood or some other disaster.

Previously they decamped to ITV Yorkshire and used the Calendar studio.

[UTVLifer]

They must have a contingency plan just in case the building can’t be used for an extended period of time because of a fire or flood or some other disaster.

It'd most likely be broadcasting from Leeds, just like when there was that power cut at GIR last April

[JMT1985]

I wonder why ITV News chose Leeds to be their emergency studio? Surely a region more closer to London would have been better? Such as in ITV Central regional studio in Birmingham. Even Southampton's Meridian studio is closer to London than Leeds.

[Jon]

I wonder why ITV News chose Leeds to be their emergency studio? Surely a region more closer to London would have been better? Such as in ITV Central regional studio in Birmingham. Even Southampton's Meridian studio is closer to London than Leeds.

Probably better in case of nuclear attack on London.

[chaose]

I wonder why ITV News chose Leeds to be their emergency studio? Surely a region more closer to London would have been better? Such as in ITV Central regional studio in Birmingham. Even Southampton's Meridian studio is closer to London than Leeds.

Leeds is sort of ITV's northern base. Main playout is done in Chiswick, but the secondary playout is in Leeds. It plays out the northern regions and acts as a backup for the network feed. So it makes sense to have the backup news studio in the same place, i.e. the former Yorkshire Television studios.

[Humphrey Hacker]

I wonder why ITV News chose Leeds to be their emergency studio? Surely a region more closer to London would have been better? Such as in ITV Central regional studio in Birmingham. Even Southampton's Meridian studio is closer to London than Leeds.

Leeds is sort of ITV's northern base. Main playout is done in Chiswick, but the secondary playout is in Leeds. It plays out the northern regions and acts as a backup for the network feed. So it makes sense to have the backup news studio in the same place, i.e. the former Yorkshire Television studios.

Leeds is a good choice because its fairly central and feeds the Northern areas but I feel that they have an off-site backup elsewhere.

[Yorksman]

They have a facilities at Millbank and elsewhere as shown on their website:


I doubt they'd struggle unless someone dropped a nuclear bomb on London, and then only briefly, as I'm sure they could connect from a Bureau somewhere in the world
(assuming there was anyone left elsewhere in the UK to receive it).   

There was an incident back in 2010 where GIR lost power and Julie Etchingham did a truncated News at Ten from a broom cupboard in Millbank.

I remember that and on that night ITV were showing an FA Cup match between Liverpool and Reading, and Reading scored in 2nd half injury time, so the game went to extra time.

I think behind the scenes they were glad it went to extra time as it would have been chaos if News At Ten had been on at 10pm.

Edit: Here's the thread from that night, from the old blue place:
tvforum.uk 

ITV News - Powercut at ITN: Topic split. 13th January - TV Forum
TV Forum Light Dark System Default Homepage TV Home The Newsroom Media & Tec…
  Source: www.tvforum.co.uk

[Kojak]

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.