International News Presentation: Past and Present

1970s news music is alive on NDR in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, 2015:



Another NDR opt-out, this time for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, 2015:



Staying with NDR but moving on to Lower Saxony...



And here's NDR's local news for Hamburg, 2015:

Oh my. The titles to NDR's Hamburg local news makes Germany's 2nd-largest city look like a country town.

The old themes and slightly dated titles have become a bit of a trademark for NDR. The broadcaster itself is actually quite modern and dynamic. Can you tell NDR was set up by the BBC?

It wasn't exactly set up by the BBC, but Hugh Greene, who was in charge of establishing NWDR, used the BBC as a model for the new broadcaster. Greene had worked for the BBC's German service during the war, and of course, he went on to run (and modernize) the BBC in the 1960s. (NWDR was later split up to form NDR and WDR).

I love that 70's theme! It would be brilliant for Big Centre TV!

WDR, Germany; local opt-out for Münsterland, 2015:



WDR, Germany; local opt-out for...

Duisburg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZQlOMzv2uU

South Westphalia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igHr7FVBlxE

East Westphalia-Lippe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LXu0dDdYRY

Dortmund:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZjd83viFkY

Ruhr:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixRw3OZ8S7c

Bergisches Land:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEg4a-pYdL0

Aachen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CiOkfwuT5c

Bonn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mOZokjT2As

Dusseldorf:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuZy1mMLPWk

Cologne:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHhhaezj0h4

RBB, Germany; local news for Berlin, 2015:

Judging by clips on the CNBC website, CNBC Europe has now adopted the new graphics package for CNBC. From what I've seen, it seems they've taken the graphics in their entirety, rather than develop their own local interpretation (as they've previously done).

RBB Aktuell, Germany (local news for Berlin and Brandenburg)

2007:


2012:

SR, Germany, local news for Saarland:
New intro of SR-Aktuell since the beginning of this year:

Interesting to see the German approach to local news - they certainly don't seem to treat it as an inconvenience. Lokalzeit especially seems interesting - is that nationwide regional shows or local shows in one region, possibly all filmed in the same studio by the looks of it.

Lokalzeit is WDR's local news bloc for various towns and areas in the broadcaster's service area -- namely the German Land (state) of North Rhine - Westphalia. The sets look almost identical, but they are not the same studio -- each is located in the area it serves.

For instance, this is the set in Cologne:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/K%C3%B6ln_-_WDR_Arkaden_Studio_Lokalzeit_K%C3%B6ln.jpg
Image: wikipedia.de

And the set in Bonn:

http://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/1453/files/2014/04/IMG_3626.jpg
Image: zakunibonn.hypotheses.org

However, WDR is atypical in that it's so localized. Other ARD broadcasters tend to serve considerably larger regions. For instance, broadcasters that serve several Laender (states), such as NDR and MDR, tend to have one regional newscast per Land, with nothing on a more local level. (Hamburg is its own Land; that's why it gets its own news.)