ITV abandons the South Bank

Seems slightly ridiculous that itv will for a period end up with a large presence at TV Centre and the BBC will similarly have a large operation at Elstree. If you'd told Lew Grade that would happen in the late 70s, he'd laugh in your face.

cant there open more studio like 4 or 5 in TC? even for a few years?

WHERE?

What has been knocked down?

I wonder if they'd considered hiring one of ITN's studios for GMB. Almost identical in size to Studio 5 at TLS, office space above and handy to be in the same building as ITV News. Peston could have used it too.

The cynic in me wonders if somewhere amidst this strategy is a plan to relocate ITV News within the new south bank base and bring news completely in house.

The studios that you are talking about.



Which ITN studios?

They don't have any studios free at ITN. Besides, Daytime now run a lot of shared teams (such as graphics and technical), so having the shows spread like that would be an issue.

What occupies Studio 2 at ITN now then?

C5N IIRC.

Ah - thought C5 occupied a smaller part of the building somewhere. I did think they'd moved into somewhere on the ground floor rather than the basement. As you say though, the resources pooled between daytime would make it impractical, despite the potential advantages.

To clarify, there is no Studios 4 or 5 etc at Television Centre, they along with 6,7 and 8 have all been demolished.

ITN headquarters has a pathetic lack of studio space. Studio 1 is ITV News, Studio 2 is 5 News, remember ITV News London does not even have its own dedicated studio, they are lumped into Studio 1. Channel 4 News has their own fantastic atrium view studio. Apart from the odd CSO cupboard stand by studio, that is it at ITN.

Studios 2 and 3 looks like to be handed over to ITV under a contract deal with BBC Studioworks. Weekends maybe help, as Studio 3 could be used on Saturdays and Sundays, but this would require fast set turnaround.

Only Studio 1 will be available it seems on a full time basis.

Cheers for that, so Maidstone will be up to be making lots of money from this.