International News Presentation: Past and Present

It's December, so to get everyone in the mood, here's some bone-chilling blizzard coverage from the 1970s:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCAjA-go9Q0
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDpB94Wyyyg

A new news channel in the city of Hong Kong - the iNews channel from the biggest TV station in the city,TVB, as part of their multi-channelling which have started since New Year's Eve 2007.

Ident: http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=6htJs0Z-7ZM (BBC fans should observe something familiar in the tune...BBC Arabic-esque if I'm correct )

Start of bulletins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S846JNxKxaQ (here in Hong Kong, news channels do 30-min bulletins 24/7 rather than rolling news)

Comments plz.

Wow, TVB has used the same music for a long time. You can hear it in this 1984 clip (beginning at 1:15):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2eo0k_JCSY


More blizzard coverage...

...from 1978: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCHidgPJa1Q

...and 1987: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF3xNxQqV0Q

I want to throw some questions now.
How the TVB News (as well as TVB idents) would look like in very old days, as far as the B/W age?
How long the music has been used?
Why TVB News and ATV News music sounds similar?

Thirty years ago this week, France experienced a major power cut / blackout. Here's French TV (Antenne 2) coverage of the event:

http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&id_notice=CAB05001278
(embedded QuickTime format; it takes a few seconds to start)

I like their simple but effective opening sequence. The style of anchoring also seems far more modern than the excessively formal style that the BBC used at the time (and Germany's ARD still uses). BTW, the anchor you see in the clip only retired this year.

Below is another clip of Antenne 2 (now France 2), this one recorded on today's date in 1978.

In some ways, the newscast was really unconventional, especially for that era. In this example, they actually start the news with the weather forecast because of a prediction of severe weather.

Also note that the anchor is standing up and the beginning and later moves to another part of the set -- something that was extremely rare in Europe until the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Most European newscasts were still very formal in 1978.

Here's the clip:

http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&id_notice=CAB05001300
(This is a QuickTime clip from the French national TV archives; it takes a few seconds to start; if question mark appears, try refeshing the page)

Or is it a preview of a new weather prediction system (that's what the first report seems to be about)? My French is virtually nonexistent.

The top story is the start of the 'Christmas getaway', so the weather forecast is for the benefit of drivers. For some reason in France, holiday traffic is always really massive news.

As it happens, though, the headlines of the French lunchtime programmes always include a short weather forecast, like here.

Thanks!

As a person who was born in Hong Kong, I think I can give some insight as to the local television history.

As far as idents and television news opening is concerned, it has only become a hobby in recent years, so records are spotty (and nothing pre-VHS era). However, TVB's news themes has been used for at least 20-23 years, in various arrangements.

The reason TVB and ATV's news theme sounds similar is, I believe, because they are both roughly based on Morse Codes.

Does anyone know how have Hong Kong's TV Stations fared in their news coverage in recent years? I heard that ATV's Cantonese News rating's have dropped dramatically because of alleged pro-beijing bias

i don't know the exact figures of ATV News ratings, but I can tell you that ATV services , in general, are FAR LESS POPULAR than TVB services.