ITV1 will devote up to twelve hours per day to coverage of the upcoming war on Iraq, it has emerged today.
The channel will simulcast the ITV News Channel overnight through until 6am, after which a 'serious' GMTV will air both on ITV1 and the news channel.
All three of the network's bulletins will be extended to provide extra coverage and analysis of the war. The Early Evening News at 6.30pm will be extended forward by half an hour, incorporating the regional news bulletin, which will shrink to a ten-minute segment.
News At Ten will be shifted to 9pm as soon as the war begins, spanning an hour on heavy news days. The programme will be presented by Trevor McDonald in Kuwait and John Suchet in London. Mark Austin will anchor bulletins from the Gulf.
ITV News editor David Mannion told Broadcast that he had 58 people in the field in the "biggest single deployment in the history of ITN." Of these, 14 personnel are situated in Baghdad; Mannion said their safety was being reviewed "minute by minute" following President Bush's advice yesterday for all journalists to leave Iraq immediately.
"Our plan at the moment is to stay put, but that is constantly under review," he said. "However, there comes a point when you put them in more danger by telling them to come out than if they were staying put. Once the conflict begins they are in for the duration."
The channel will simulcast the ITV News Channel overnight through until 6am, after which a 'serious' GMTV will air both on ITV1 and the news channel.
All three of the network's bulletins will be extended to provide extra coverage and analysis of the war. The Early Evening News at 6.30pm will be extended forward by half an hour, incorporating the regional news bulletin, which will shrink to a ten-minute segment.
News At Ten will be shifted to 9pm as soon as the war begins, spanning an hour on heavy news days. The programme will be presented by Trevor McDonald in Kuwait and John Suchet in London. Mark Austin will anchor bulletins from the Gulf.
ITV News editor David Mannion told Broadcast that he had 58 people in the field in the "biggest single deployment in the history of ITN." Of these, 14 personnel are situated in Baghdad; Mannion said their safety was being reviewed "minute by minute" following President Bush's advice yesterday for all journalists to leave Iraq immediately.
"Our plan at the moment is to stay put, but that is constantly under review," he said. "However, there comes a point when you put them in more danger by telling them to come out than if they were staying put. Once the conflict begins they are in for the duration."
