Lost The Remote's posts

Sky News: Presenters & Rotas

Four high profile departures in the space of just a few months - wow. Can only imagine what staff morale is like at the moment, watching respected colleagues steam out the door at that rate.

The newer presenters like Sophy Ridge just don't cut it for me, so I could see me watching even less Sky News than I do at the moment which is already not very much having been a daily viewer in the past. And I know you don't tune into news purely for who is presenting, but it boils down to why you would ever pick Sky News over BBC News and the reasons for doing so are less and less each year. Plus, I dread to think how the likes of Ridge would cope with a major breaking news story.

I'm going to put it out there that I think Ryley has well and truly wrecked the channel over the last 10 years. It is unbelievable how much it has changed in that time and none of it has been for the better. And whilst his hand may be forced to a certain extent if his superiors are cutting his budget left right and centre, he has in my view fundamentally misunderstood what the Sky News audience wants on too many occasions to forgive.

Yet another sad day in Sky News' history under Ryley's watch.

Sky News: Presenters & Rotas

FFS, that was astonishingly poor from start to finish.

The worst part is, Sky uploaded this clip themselves. They knew precisely what would happen when they did that in this day and age of social media and how fast these things can spread, because no sane person could possibly think that was a remotely credible interview. And so no doubt they'll be loving the fact that Eamonn Holmes is the top trend on social media and has been all day, regardless of what's being said about him or the broadcast.

I'm more sad for the few good journalists left at Sky News than anything else when these reputation sapping incidents occur, as they do on a very frequent basis. But it's quite clear that the likes of Holmes and Burley aren't entirely at fault - as terrible as they are at their jobs - no, no, it's apparent now that behind the scenes this style of interview is actively encouraged by senior management, as a way of pushing people's buttons and getting noticed.

That a once good news channel would stoop as low as this is massively disappointing, albeit not remotely surprisingly when you consider Murdoch and his ethics. I myself have come to the conclusion that Sky News is only marginally less offensive than The Sun nowadays. And I wouldn't wipe my arse with that sorry excuse for a paper, so...

Channel 5

We know C5 is planning a push into comedy later in the year so that could change. Apart from BB which is their "event" show, they don't air any other reality AFAIK. I think essentially they want to be younger and compete more closely with Channel 4.

Broadcast is vague in saying the new look will be unveiled next week. Doesn't necessarily mean it will be going live, but might be worth checking out C5 at 9:15am tomorrow morning just in case...

Spike TV

Not quite. Three times bigger than Viva already, even without cable carriage...

19:00 Police Interceptors: 49,000 (0.3%)
* Viva's 12 month slot average: 23,000 (0.1%)
20:00 Police Interceptors Unleashed: 137,000 (0.7%)
* Viva's first origination Slips averaged 21k (0.1%) on Viva's launch night in October 2009
21:00 Fail Army: 82,000 (0.4%)
* Three times Viva's slot average
21:30 Lip Sync Battle: 86,000 (0.4%)
22:00 Olympus: 73,000
23:00 Breaking Bad: 97,000 (1.2%)
* Viva's 12 month slot average: 26,000 (0.3%)

Broadcast

Spike TV

That DOG is hideous.

You just know they've purposely decided it must be that big at launch because it's a new channel and people need to get to know the brand. But it's such flawed thinking. If the overall branding is strong which it is, it doesn't need underlining at every opportunity.

As it is, that DOG is so big and distracting it could actually put people off watching. Madness.

Spike TV

Nice endboard design.

http://oi61.tinypic.com/b46mnb.jpg

http://oi57.tinypic.com/19xrfl.jpg

Sky News presentation - new newswall

Oh, please . I'm not going to sit here and detail specific examples at this time of night, but the whole tone of the channel has completely changed. It's aimed at the lowest common denominator now. The channel is all style no substance with swishy graphics galore and very little of the high quality reporting of old. The line is crossed too often in the desperate pursuit of new angles to a story. Breaking news is the emphasis even when there's very little to say. Everything is broken down and repeated constantly. Excellent reporters/presenters have left or been made redundant and either not replaced or replaced with somebody no more than competent. The utterly loathsome Burley's brand of journalism is encouraged, celebrated even. Where on earth are the positives? Can you name a single area in which they are stronger now than they were in about 8 years ago?

If it wasn't for the Monday night Press Preview, I could quite easily drop Sky News altogether. BBC News wipes the floor with it on a daily basis. But it never used to be that way. I find it incredible that anyone could think the gap between them in terms of quality isn't as wide as it's ever been, so much so that I question how much of what I read on here is genuine opinion from a member of the public and not somebody affiliated in some shape or form with BSkyB.

Brazier has let himself down and not Sky News. They're only apologising for this because there's been a bit of uproar. But they'll be sure to check the ratings report tomorrow before checking the contents of any complaints and if their hours of unedifying coverage did well then job done I suspect. But all the time their "core" day to day audience must be getting smaller, because frankly, who wants to watch this kind of thing ?

Sky News presentation - new newswall

Disgraceful. Why anyone would even waste their time trying to defend something so intrinsically wrong is beyond me. It doesn't matter that he stopped after a few seconds, he still did it live on air. And in the process offended many many people with his grossly insensitive reporting of an awful human tragedy.

Further evidence of the shocking decline in standards at Sky News. Don't tell me this would have happened a decade or so because it absolutely wouldn't. No doubt fodg09 will be along shortly to tell us how excellent the coverage has been overall.

Channel 5

C5+24 has its own presentation and continuity. I think this is because there will be some deviation from what C5 broadcast 24 hours earlier on occasions when they only have the rights to show certain documentaries and films once.

Channel 5

Yes they can. The other night before The Gadget Show you had the DFS ident followed by the Currys/PC World sting. Same thing tonight with The Mentalist and Castle which are sponsored separately by NOWTV.

Channel 5

So who is the new CA heard in the video ? I'm sure I know the voice from somewhere, it's bugging me.

Channel 5

Five seem to be using a new male continuity announcer today (December 9). Anyone know who it is? As daytime continuity is pre-recorded I'm guessing the same voice was heard Sunday evening.