GMTV (1993 - 2010)

ITV own the whole building don't they? It used to be LWT's HQ and ITV now operate a portion of it as The London Studios. AIUI GMTV (when they were a third party operation) leased/rented office space as well as studio space. I guess now that they're all part of the same company they just have to cost recover internally?

Thanks for that. I'll tweak the question a bit again then, will the newsroom remain and be used as a kind of sub newsroom for ITV News/ITN? It's got all the lines there, and if they want to make it more 'newsier', that could come in handy to have a direct line through the building from newsroom to studio.

(In my head, I understand this, but sorry if it sounds like a whole load of tosh. I'm not quite sure how to explain it exactly. Thanks for all the help anyway )

The way it is set up means that productions still rent space even if produced by the owner of the building.

Doubt it, as ITV News comes from another building where ITN is based.

Think you need to separate "newsroom" and "production offices" in your head. At the moment GMTV probably describe their production office as "newsroom" - but even if ITV News take over news bulletin provision the non-News bulletin content (which will presumably still be the majority of the output) will still need production space.

If ITV News get the news bulletin provision contract and are responsible for writing the news bulletins and editing the content, I'd expect a chunk of their team to be based in the same building as the presenters and studio/gallery, unless the news bulletins themselves come from ITN (as was the case with the Big Breakfast) - but I don't think that is likely.

The GMTV newsroom will stay in the same place it is only the studios moving. Yes the show will involve broadcasts from the South Bank especially as it's a key part of the studio backdrop. Keep an eye out on Monday morning for some subtle 'tweaks' to news presentation and menu sequences.

What sort of technical facilities were left behind when LNN left Studio 7. According to the TV Studio History website; the edit suites and 'News Exchange' made way for offices as did the newsroom (all of which were 2 floors down from the actual studio). Is the original gallery still there?

Hasn't studio 7 been used recently for Loose Women and other shows? (Earlier posts suggested Al Jazeera Sports were in there at the moment?) I'd presumed this was using the existing gallery - rather than remoting into another TLS production area? Presumably if they're upgrading to HD they'll be replacing most of the gallery vision gear (apart possibly from some of the monitor stack)

AIUI LNN rented studio 7 from TLS, rather than operating it entirely themselves, so presumably the gallery kit was left intact for use by other clients? The SD kit currently listed on the TLS website is below (some kit quite elderly, other stuff a bit more recent) :

http://www.londonstudios.co.uk/studios/studio-details/studio-7/

ITV has allegedly commissioned an opinion poll to let the public decide a title for the new show.



I give up.

Isn't that just a focus group?

'Just' a focus group? These people cause absolute carnage. Christ, even Apple has the sense not to use focus groups - a company I can't abide, but at least they know their audience, take decisions and do everything in-house, as every good company should.

Focus groups always choose the most ambiguous, generic and 'accessible to all' options with the intention of trying to please everyone. That's how you end up with so many titles beginning with 'the' and ending in 'show'. Safe, nondescript, unimaginative, bland and boring. They will take one look at 'Daybreak' and say it's too uncommon. They won't consider that it is completely unique and distinctive for that very reason, and that ITV could make it their own by building a modern brand around it. The other options are 'The Early Show' and 'The Early View'.

If this rebrand turns out to be a success, I will eat several hats.

And we will make sure you do, should you be incorrect in your thinking.