ITV: Useless?

[Alex W.]

Right, Clubbed to Death on the 7/7 recap was one thing, but I swear, the "bong" between stories at the start of the ITV News is getting more loud and harsh each day. It's like they're trying to unnerve us. What next? Will the presenters jump out at the camera unexpectedly later in the show?

[zorse]

I think you're right, the background drumming solo is also something fierce.

[pretentious_helvetica]

Here's a handy tip. Don't watch the news and enjoy the sunshine.

[Alex W.]

I try to avoid it, but alas somebody's usually watching it when I'm trying to eat.

[pretentious_helvetica]

I try to avoid it, but alas somebody's usually watching it when I'm trying to eat.

ITN news these days is scarily full of itself. Even the standing poses of the two anchorpeople gives an nerving feeling of dominance and power.

"THIS IS THE NEWS".

[Alex W.]

Right, now ITV are retooling their "freaky weather" show from 2005 as a "global warming" show, but they're keeping the theme tune - which was just a loop from the MGS3 theme tune with some random shitty stuff over the top! How useless can ITV get?

[JohnC]

How useless can ITV get?

The Mint?

[Simmy]

This programme is terrible. People talking about some snow and a few traffic james as if it was the end of the world.... Hasn't anyone ever been to the north of scotland?

It's not 'freaky' weather, it's a yearly occurence and everyone manages fine

EDIT: Alex, can you change this topic to a general ITV Criticism thread?

Every night i see atleast one shit thing on ITV that makes me angry, but there's never a decent thread to mention it.

A general ITV criticism thread would be amazing IMO. There's PLENTY of shit to talk about

[Rsdio]

Apart from football (which they also do badly), I think I'd be going back at least five years for a programme I've gone out of my way to watch on ITV.

So yeah, ITV: are shite.

[JohnC]

The only thing I watch on ITV these days is F1, due to lack of choice. And I don't even watch all of those.

[ryodi]

Since they replaced Cybernet with The Mint / Quizmania I don't watch it anymore. ITV News is a joke and they can never get through a report on the Internet with at least one person mentioning the harm it can do to children.

[henofdoom]

Only watch the F1 (Martin Brundle saves it) and the odd footie match, if Arsenal are playing.

It's a damn good thing that they don't get a cut of the license fee, or I'd march on their HQ. Their programming is APPALLING.

[Smoothy]

ITV have dumbed down seriously in the last few years. If this is the result of the merger, then fuck me, split the companies back into the usual regional whatsits and lets have quality programming back again. The obsession of ITV in pandering to the chavs that sit at home with nothing better to do is sickly to the extreme.

[jcafarley]

Aren't ITV in serious financial trouble as well?

[merman]

Aren't ITV in serious financial trouble as well?

They will be if

- they lose the revenue from ITV Play because of the regulators

- they cannot re-negotiate the advertising contracts

I hate to say it, but there's very little I watch on ITV these days. The only thing I regularly watch on ITV1 at the moment is "Country Days" produced by Anglia, which is in the 7:30pm regional slot on Thursdays.

[FishyFish]

The last ITV comissioned programme I actually went out of my way to watch was Lewis (the Inspector Morse spinoff) which, admittedly, was very good. I'll give the new Prime Suspect and Cracker drama's a look too (but mainly based on past episodes' pedigree). Other than that, ITV is by far the worst terrestrial channel. I find a large percentage of their programming to be insulting, dumbed down trash. They rip off other channels winning ideas at every opportunity (Prehistoric Park for instance, or the new show they have coming up where celebrities trace their ancestors. Hmmm, now where have I seen something like that before?). Plus their programming is seemingly completely driven by the whims of the advertisers. If something doesn't get good ratings straight away, it's instantly killed. I know they're a commercial channel, dependant on advertising revenue, but they sould maybe try to have some faith in the programmes they commision and buy, forChristsakes.

Even 'The Light Channel' seems to be a serious overestimation of their remit these days.

[gandhi]

What I don't get is that they have several digital channels when they can't even get ITV1 right. And their roadmap for future programming I'm pretty sure involves all of Ant and Dec. That celebrity golf torunament actually looked okayl I caught the end of their royal interviews and I have nothing against young Anthony and Decland but by jove for the most part they present some utter bollocks. If it weren't for corrie maybe they'd feel the need to try harder. In fact, channel fucking five are better.

[hereticboy]

It's not ALL bad. ITV2 (I think, it's one of the extra channels anyway) shows Quantum Leap during the afternoon. Othewise, it's complete and utter shite.

[GwiDan]

The single most annoying thing about ITV (and Channel 5) apart from the unwatchable programming is how they put the news in the middle of films. They don't just artificially make the film 30 minutes longer, thus getting more advertising revenue from additional breaks, they put the news down on the EPG, so if I've got my PVR set to record a film, it'll stop recording when the news starts, so if the film is running later than the EPG, I could miss a bit of it, and if I forget to set the PVR to record the second half of the film, I might as well not have bothered at all.

Why can't they put "with news" in the EPG info of whatever film is on at that time?

[Spartan]

Since they replaced Cybernet with The Mint / Quizmania I don't watch it anymore. ITV News is a joke and they can never get through a report on the Internet with at least one person mentioning the harm it can do to children.

Same here. Cybernet was the ONLY programme i watched on ITV1 up until quizmania arrived. Since it started i have barely, if ever, watched it.

There is just nothing on ITV1. Absolutley NOTHING on that i am remotely interested in as a 23 year bloke

ITV1 = Fucked

[henofdoom]

Maybe after the whole ITV Sport debacle they just stopped being edgy (if they ever were...?) and began to pussy out of making risky stuff. Playing it safe? Relying on Coronation Street?

Fact is, X-Factor followed by Who Wants to Be a Millionaire does not float my boat.

[Comrade]

I can't believe that after their biggest ratings winner of the year (X-Factor) they stick one of the cheapest, shittiest shows they have, which is usually saturday afternoon fodder (You've Been Framed). Harry Hill or no, that's not how you run your saturday nights!

I mean, even disregarding the plummeting show quality, ITV can't even get basic scheduling right. It's a farce.

[Boyatsea]

Yes. ITV's programming is awful. The other main problem though, is all the channels. Why on earth do they need four of them? Just what is meant to differentiate them from each other, apart from the fact that ITV2, 3 and 4 just seemingly show repeats. Indeed, is ITV4 still around? Or did that become ITV Play?

Five years. I give them five years. Then they'll be gone.

[lau]

One of the ITV channels is good though, it`s all repeats of stuff I used to watch with my family growing up. Jeeves and Wooster, Poirot, Midsummer murders etc etc.

But in general ITV is a pile of shite.

[mchugh]

hows C5 these days? I cant even get it at my house (probably a good thing)

[thingymajig]

Well, another thing I noticed when indulging my rare channel surfing urge was that one of the ITV channels was showing True Lies for approximately the 45612th time this year.

They seem to show a film on the main channel, then show it at least once on the other channels over the course of the week. It's a fucking joke.

[Lorfarius]

Harry Hill or no, that's not how you run your saturday nights!

Anyone know when TV Burp is due back on? Besides Corrie/Emmerdale its the only ITV show I enjoy.

[ScouserInExile]

Other than the footie and their really shitty coverage of the WRC (I really wish it would switch back to C4), I can't remember the last thing I watched on ITV1. There's actually some alright stuff on ITV2, 3 & 4 (though i'd be hard pressed to tell you what off the top of my head) but ITV1 is just dross. There's nothing worth watching on it at all, ever.

[merman]

hows C5 these days? I cant even get it at my house (probably a good thing)

Five is doing OK, ratings wise. I don't watch films on Five because of the previously mentioned news/ad breaks. But they have shown some good documentaries recently - the series on art/artists, and currently The Trench Detectives.

Harry Hill's TV Burp will be back in the New Year

[Smoothy]

Well, another thing I noticed when indulging my rare channel surfing urge was that one of the ITV channels was showing True Lies for approximately the 45612th time this year.

ITV2, it was on last night. But yeah it's been on loads of times in the past and it's almost getting as tiresome to watch as the umpteenth showing of any James Bond film.