BBC News 24 Relaunch

Lol! Is World having that as well as News 24? I've noticed that they've gone more 'tabloid' with their headlines - not only the written ones, but they're missing words out verbally in their headlines as well. It actually worked quite well, as they usually ran over the thunderclaps on BBC World!

Good morning all - I've just joined the N24 relaunch at 11am, perhaps not the best time since the Rugby celebrations are getting into full swing...but anyway, I'll watch for an hour and give my thoughts as I go along.

Countdown - nothing really special here, I guess. Just tweaked around a bit. Glad they've got rid of having the numbers counting down in italics, because I thought that looked crap.

TOTH - not as garish as the initial picture made out. Quite nice, actually, though not sure about the music. I think that because it is used in conjunction with what is I suppose the 'traditional' countdown music, it actually highlights how tired now the BBC news music is, something which I wouldn't have said before today.

Studio - An improvement, yes, but something would have to have gone badly wrong for the new set to end up looking worse than the old one, which I always thought looked too dark. The new set looks very fresh, and light, almost as if someone has opened the windows, but on some angles, there seems to be too much white, which gives it a sterile feel (insert N24 joke here...). And to say that the view into the newsroom a la Sky was supposed to make things feel pacier, I don't think it works. I think that the newsroom seems too cut off. But at least it seems as if there's people in it now.

On an aside, I was not sure how orange and black titles and a red and white studio were supposed to go together, but somehow they do, perhaps because they are linked in the graphics.

And on to the graphics. Well...very mixed feelings. Erm...they do animate nicely. As for the DOG - if you stuck an equivalent on BBC1, the switchboard would be jammed with complaints. You don't notice it so much when it's with an aston, but when it's by itself, it's really intrusive. I'm finding myself looking at that rather than what's going on!

Regarding the astons, I like the little black strap that lines up with the clock. Looks very neat. So does the 'Live' graphic. The black strap used in interviews is also very nice. This is all totally ruined by the VERY LARGE text on the upper strap, which lines up with the DOG. It's also used for BREAKING NEWS . Eww, eww, eww, no, no, no. When people said they wanted N24 to surpass Sky News, I don't think they were talking about how big and ugly they could make their graphics! Okay, N24's might not be as garish, but I'm not flippin' blind (which I hope my visit to the optician's this afternoon will back up).

But putting style aside, is the substance there? I don't know. Is that a bad thing? On one hand it says that at the roots level, nothing's changed because I've not sat up in my seat and said, "Wow! I'm blown away - never mind the new set and stuff, look at how they're covering the news!" On the other hand, there's the argument that today is not a typical straightforward news day because of the rugby. Yet you could say, "Well, it's a big event, surely it's the perfect oppourtunity to let rip?" Because you know what? [whisper]I'm not overly impressed by Sky's coverage of it![/whisper] N24 should be tempting me away, should be shouting, "Come over to me! I'm your friend now! Forget about Sky." But at the moment, I am not hearing the call.

However, like all new things, there should be a settling in period, and whilst I will give the overall thumbs up to what N24 looks like, I am going to reserve my final judgement on whether or not it does the job promised for a little while yet. As it stands, I am not converted from Sky because I can't see anything different in the content, and frankly anyone who is saying they will switch news channels simply because one has better animated astons than the other is obviously not watching them for the right reasons.

Doesn't that one look good!

That was a close timing, only 3 seconds of countdown before 12 o'clock. The annoying thing is that I can't access any of the News 24 interactive stuff as I've got cable.

Apologies if this has been covered...

Will the 1/6/10 news have new titles and graphics?

I assume so, only another half hour until you will know for sure.

I actually can notice a pacier, sort ofd more relaxed way that they're presenting the news... not as isolated and stuffy as it used to be... it looks like a proper operation now, not just just people sitting in a dusty cream corner of the newsroom...

I do think that the presenters will also learn to relax more in to the new desired style; I think in a few weeks time, we'll notice a bigger difference...

And isn't the newsroom very noisy... its not just trivial 'made on purpose' sound... there really does sound like the place is heaving with activity.. it's great...

I have decided that I really the relaunch. The titles are simple (as MoD said, I think they have to be if their being newly rendered every hour).

Well done BBC!

I was told that they may be hanging on until 2004 until they introduce new titles.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but do News 24 and World have the same opening title music?

Well at the daytime summary, the old graphics were the same and there was no pre-news ident, so it's looking doubtful...

Yes they do now for the first time.

They are incredibly similar, but I think the World one has that TWT sound in it at the end which makes it a little different to N24.

The World presenters aren't getting the hang of the new closing titles - they seem to be a lot shorter than the old versions, so they run out of time!