We are just two months from major scheduling changes on ITV 1 yet little has been said publicly.
A number of significant changes to the ITV 1 network schedule are expected from Monday 5th January.
- The two main soaps move to a new pattern. Emmerdale will be shown at 8pm each weeknight with Coronation Street at 8.30pm. There will, as a result, be half an hour less of each soap over the course of the week.
- The cuts to daytime take effect. Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women will move from TV Centre to a studio in Covent Garden. Budgets are being cut while Lorraine and Loose Women will be off air for much of the year.
- Good Morning Britain will join ITV News and be broadcast from ITN.
It should be remembered that these changes are all cuts. They have been difficult for staff and some have lost their jobs. Freelancers may be picking up less work.
But there are some mysteries to resolve.
It’s likely ITV will try to minimise any obvious, immediate changes to the daytime programmes on screen. Ultimately they are designed to try to make the programmes more sustainable amid tight budgets.
Having said that Loose Women is losing its studio audience.
But how will GMB look?
A new set is being built at ITN. It is understood that the same studio will be used for the ITV News.
So will the plan be to try to maintain the current look of GMB as far as possible?
And what of the ITV News?
The current look has scarcely changed since 2013, apart from the introduction of some bespoke elements for News at Ten.
It has aged well but it would be no bad thing to freshen up the look of the programmes now to stay ahead of the curve.
Will the graphics and titles change? Will the set look obviously different?
If the graphics change, the regional programmes will need a refresh too.
But if the network set continues to use the current colour palette there would be no need to make any major changes immediately to all the regional sets at the same time.
(As I’ve said before, I’d be surprised if a refresh of the titles didn’t bring explicit ITV News branding to UTV Live.)
But the biggest single mystery concerns the 7.30pm slot?
The assumption is programmes like Tonight will move there. But there are some 250 slots to fill every year and I’m not aware of any commissioning announcements.
All those mysteries should be resolved in the coming weeks.
The schedules for the first full week of January usually emerge before Christmas.
The sad thing though is that many of these changes – GMB, daytime, the soaps – are rooted in saving money.
Of course, advertising revenue and linear ratings are declining. Every business has a duty to be as efficient as possible.
But if ITV can genuinely make changes of this magnitude without disappointing the loyal viewers of staple programmes, it will be a remarkable achievement.
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