A camera angle I haven't seen before from The Shard.
Looking at that image, it looks a little bit like there are sliding doors to the left of the page. I wonder if they open up to reveal a newsroom or production gallery?
It would seem that there is something going on with the Doha studio too. For the past week or so the TOTH pans have been very tightly framed on the set (desk/newswall) - we haven't seen the newsroom at all.
A Broadcast article did mention that AJE are updating their systems so maybe they are just replacing computers as opposed to changing the look of the newsroom, but we shall see.
It seems like they're still doing these tight shots. There was a mistake during this hour's broadcast that cut quickly to one of the jib cameras, and I could see that the first row of desks in between the cameras and the studio area had nobody in them and with all of the computers turned off. There must be something going on.
Al Jazeera Balkans presenter tweeted about being blown away by the new AJ look which he just saw. It's coming to all AJ news channels but the date is still a secret.
I know the rumors of a new look have been circulating for years but I guess it's finally happening, for real, this year.
Al Jazeera Balkans presenter tweeted about being blown away by the new AJ look which he just saw. It's coming to all AJ news channels but the date is still a secret.
I know the rumors of a new look have been circulating for years but I guess it's finally happening, for real, this year.
A new look even though the move into the shard has just happened.
Al Jazeera Balkans presenter tweeted about being blown away by the new AJ look which he just saw. It's coming to all AJ news channels but the date is still a secret.
I know the rumors of a new look have been circulating for years but I guess it's finally happening, for real, this year.
A new look even though the move into the shard has just happened.
The set at the Shard is quite different to the previous Al Jazeera sets - perhaps it has been designed to fit nicely with the new look?
It also explains why we really haven't seen much of The Shard set. I had my suspicions they were 'hiding' parts of the set. Can't wait to see what develops.
It could also explain the lack of wide-shots of the Doha studio, which I mentioned a few weeks ago. The newsroom hasn't been seen for quite a while...
Looking forward to this new look, whenever it debuts. Worth remembering that AJE also has a redesigned website in beta form, too. Maybe it'll all go live at the same time.
I'm still going to hold my breath on principle seeing as how many times we've heard that AJ is "just about" to release a sweeping new look, though if an AJB presenter tweeted about it, that's more credible then.
This would also fit in well with AJAM's announcement yesterday that they're basically going to revert to the AJB/AJUK format of a few hours of programming at night with the rest of the day filled with AJE simulcasts. It's amazing that over a year and a half on, the lower thirds in simulcasts are covered up by the channel bug for over half the day now...
I don't know whether it was admitting defeat so much as maybe this was the plan from the start. The original plan was to be 40% original content, but when the wingnuts and American cable companies had a fit, they changed the programming strategy to be a "100% American" network. AJ tried, but frankly, I don't think they had it in themselves to try to be a full-service American news network. It didn't really make a whole lot of sense either. Most of the people who are tuning in are interested in international news.
Here's the announcement. Basically AJAM is reduced to four hours of programming a night:
I just hope they don't also scale back the correspondents and field producers in the US, as their coverage of the US has greatly improved since launching AJAM, though it's probably only a matter of time before all of that gets cut back too.
