International News Presentation: Past and Present

And here's the aftermath of a night of severe storms as seen on the regional news from WDR, the ARD station serving the German Land of North Rhine-Westphalia, 2014:

Here's a special report -- WDR Extra -- from the same day:



And this is what WDR's local opt-out for the city of Cologne looks like:

This news intro is featured prominently in the current movie Nightcrawler -- KCBS, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., 2013:

Speaking of KCBS, here's an extended promotional spot for their 2009 relaunch (a joint project with their sister station KCAL):

2/9 NewsCentral was one of the stupidest branding exercises I can remember. Ultimately a huge waste and was shortly scrapped shortly thereafter. Idiotic and meaningless. Sad when CBS took over KCAL 9 and stripped its longtime identity and theme.

I always laugh whenever Stu Mundel almost says the wrong channel number when in the helicopter over LA. They use either Sky2 or Sky9 depending on whether they are on KCBS or KCAL.

The US focus on the actual broadcast channel number has always struck me as a bit bizarre (particularly as with digital TV the link to the RF channel is often gone and so the number is purely a semi-random branding device). We do have a different heritage - with rotary tuners (which meant you needed to know your RF channel to quickly re-tune) not as dominant for a lengthy period as possibly they were in the US, but it does strike most of us non-US viewers as a bit odd.

I suppose having nationally agreed "logical channel numbers" (as we do in the UK and most - if not all - of Europe) is too difficult to manage.

Here we go again.

But then again, the use of RF channel numbers for on-air station identification has always been widespread in Australia, much of Latin America, and parts of Asia -- so it's not just an American practice.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/Thaitvchannel5.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Teletica_Logo.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/T13_Logo2012.svg/250px-T13_Logo2012.svg.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Azteca_7_Network_logo.PNG http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/BBTV_Channel_7.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Channel_Nine_logo.png/200px-Channel_Nine_logo.png
Images: Wikipedia

Here's another interesting chapter in the history of French television news. In September 1972, ORTF underwent one of its many reorganizations (before it was ultimately abolished just more than two years later). The news department from ORTF's Second Network, 24 Heures sur la Deux, moved to the first network and was renamed 24 Heures sur la Une. Meanwhile, Information Premiere, which had previously produced the news on the First Network was completely overhauled and replaced by INF 2 on the Second Network.

Confused?

From September 10, 1972, here's the last-ever 1 p.m. edition of Information Premiere (Sports fans may be interested to note that the lead story is the still-controversial ending to the U.S.-Soviet basketball game at the Munich Olympics):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AneKKklkARQ

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/az2si/ortf-1972-2a_zps7746d598.png

And from 1 p.m. the following day, the debut of 24 Heures on the First Network, including an introductory speech from the news director:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAgqBFZTDh0

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/az2si/ortf-1972-3a_zpsdcdba225.png

You could argue that it is the other way round, European networks used to broadcast the same programme on so many channels that it wasn't practical to use them in marketing. Channel numbers are a very handy way to market your station by associating it with a button on the remote control.

Even though the Americans may not use the actual channels for terrestrial broadcasting any more, they are still the channel numbers where most viewers will find the different stations. I. e. KCBS-TV will always be found on "virtual" channel 2 on all platforms in Los Angeles. It makes very much sense to highlight that.

One thing interesting this I've noticed that most people when they refer to a particular station they will all call it Channel xxx. Even though networks mandated the NBC 5 or CBS 2 or ABC 7 monikers. Most people will still say simplly Channel 7 or Channel 2 rather than CBS 2 or ABC 7. Interesting ABC allowed WABC to continue to refer to itself as Channel 7 Eyewitness News unlike Chicago where they were force to adopt ABC 7 Eyewitness News.