The Newsroom

Anglia/East of England News Discussion

ITV News Anglia and Look East (November 2009)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
HA
harshy Founding member
When new looks are rolled out, everything is generally coherent at first. But then as ‘refreshes’ occur here and there, usually created locally, things begin to drift.
When Reith is launched in news you should find things all look the same again, but then as noggin has pointed out (in this thread or another, I can’t remember) so long as your region looks like it’s in the same branding family as the network, it really doesn’t matter if there are small differences between regions as most people only watch one.

I don't think anyone minds the differences between regions, its the lack of consistency within their look, the difference use of fonts is unbelievable, I thought Look North was bad, but its worse with Look East.
LS
Lou Scannon
I think that BBC regional news has always been terrible for not being consistent even within a single region.

There was a time when the main 18:30 Midlands Today had a weekly feature (possibly on Wednesdays?) called "Newsmakers", which would be a story being covered due to a viewer phoning in to say they had a story (often community / human interest bibble).

IIRC, the "Newsmakers" feature was first introduced during MT's final ever non-generic style circa 1999 (the gaudy multi-coloured "stained glass window / patchwork quilt" era). The story would be prefaced with a "Newsmakers" sting in that colourful style.

The "Newsmakers" sting was NEVER updated to match the subsequent Lambie Nairn "maps" era branding of the programme. The old-style sting continued to be used well into the "maps" era, despite it matching nothing else. I think that the whole "Newsmakers" feature ended by the time that Generic Look Mk2 arrived (China Red etc), so we were thankfully spared from a two-revamps-ago sting still being in use.

This kind of p*ss-poor (lack of) sense of "branding" is something that one inherently associates with BBC regional news as a whole.
:-(
A former member
I don’t think it’s acceptable that there is such inconsistency and poor design going on. Technology has moved on in such a way that a good computer nowadays can do more than the custom equipment of old, allowing consistency to be maintained much more easily. You see videos on YouTube with better graphics than many BBC regional news programmes.
WH
what
I don’t think it’s acceptable that there is such inconsistency and poor design going on. Technology has moved on in such a way that a good computer nowadays can do more than the custom equipment of old, allowing consistency to be maintained much more easily. You see videos on YouTube with better graphics than many BBC regional news programmes.

Quite right, but remember the BBC can’t spend money.
MI
m_in_m
what posted:
I don’t think it’s acceptable that there is such inconsistency and poor design going on. Technology has moved on in such a way that a good computer nowadays can do more than the custom equipment of old, allowing consistency to be maintained much more easily. You see videos on YouTube with better graphics than many BBC regional news programmes.

Quite right, but remember the BBC can’t spend money.

Look East is a prime example of where presumably either the budget isn’t available or would have to be taken away from the journalism to update the equipment. Cambridge has modern kit (though not sure if HD capable) and Norwich is using much older kit. Why? Purely down to the fact Norwich moved from St Cathrines Close to the forum in 2003 while Cambridge moved from Betjeman House to Cambridge Business Park in 2010.

Until fundamental decisions are made on how the English TV services will operate this is likely to be the kit regions will continue with and I suspect Norwich is perhaps not the worst kitted out region around.
HA
harshy Founding member
Who gets that award of the worst kitted out region?
WO
Worzel
what posted:
I don’t think it’s acceptable that there is such inconsistency and poor design going on. Technology has moved on in such a way that a good computer nowadays can do more than the custom equipment of old, allowing consistency to be maintained much more easily. You see videos on YouTube with better graphics than many BBC regional news programmes.

Quite right, but remember the BBC can’t spend money.

Look East is a prime example of where presumably either the budget isn’t available or would have to be taken away from the journalism to update the equipment. Cambridge has modern kit (though not sure if HD capable) and Norwich is using much older kit. Why? Purely down to the fact Norwich moved from St Cathrines Close to the forum in 2003 while Cambridge moved from Betjeman House to Cambridge Business Park in 2010.

Until fundamental decisions are made on how the English TV services will operate this is likely to be the kit regions will continue with and I suspect Norwich is perhaps not the worst kitted out region around.


The Look East Norwich set has had some tweaks in the last 12 months. They've re-introduced the sofa and dropped the full height desk, moved some lighting rigs around and removed the globe etching from the fake backdrop (although Cambridge still has it, as well as a full height desk - so both East and West regions look different).

The Norwich set still looks absolutely awful and messy. The picture quality on screen is dire due to the prehistoric cameras still in use and the rear projection screens on the left and right walls are completely shot and washed out. I'm sure you'd get a better image using an overhead projector from 20 years ago.

Both sets are now 10 years old and long overdue a refresh.

Don't get me started on the titles with the wrong fonts and Microsoft Paint job done on the closing slides with the Facebook and contact handles.
Last edited by Worzel on 31 December 2018 1:14am
AS
AlexS
I don’t think it’s acceptable that there is such inconsistency and poor design going on. Technology has moved on in such a way that a good computer nowadays can do more than the custom equipment of old, allowing consistency to be maintained much more easily. You see videos on YouTube with better graphics than many BBC regional news programmes.

I imagine some of the bigger youtube channels have both a bigger budget and audience that a regional news programme on the BBC. Some smaller youtube channels also use the platform as a way to showcase their abilities and there is also a culture of content creators using things produced by others for no payment that would not be acceptable if the BBC attempted it.
SP
Steve in Pudsey

This kind of p*ss-poor (lack of) sense of "branding" is something that one inherently associates with BBC regional news as a whole.


But in the same era you have the situation where the new Gill Sans logo was introduced across the board on a Saturday with Look North rebranding on the Monday. They actually re-edited/remade the old short bulletin titles with the new logo just for one or two uses.
HA
harshy Founding member
It’s a joke even more so when literally across the Pennines there is a far technically superior show in the form of North West Tonight, then you look at Look North with graphics generated using a commodore c64.
IS
Inspector Sands

There is always a tension between consistency/uniformity

Sounds like an excellent description of TV Forum...

10 days later

RE
reubz
Having watched Anglia’s news recently, I’ve noticed a few features items reported by ex-Central’s Kevin Ashford, though they never seem to be region specific. Does Kevin’s reports appear in other regions anyone know?

Newer posts