ASIA Disaster - Coverage & Discussion

I woke up to a CNN text this morning regarding a tidal earthquake in SE Asia, been channel hopping since.

Before I discuss the coverage, can I just send my deepest sympathies to all involved and of course the families waiting for news. I myself have several friends in the region and am more than anxious for news. It is almost to the day that the BAM earthquake hit another part of that region, a truly awful natural disaster yet again.


SKY News - Outstanding. Juliette Foster held up very well on her own until Martin Standford joined her at 9am. Great continuous coverage from Sky.

BBC- Not bad, though in my opinion the BBC were much slower than Sky in realising the enormity of the story. Simon McCoy anchoring Brekkie alone with Tim Wilcox appearing at 9am for News 24. N24 joined world for more coverage at 09.30 with Adrian Finnighan.

ITVNC - Total rubbish, probably due to the fact they didn't have enough resources until 7am. Coverage picked up after 7am with Owen Thomas doing a pretty acceptable job.

More than a week on and with many people discussing ratings, who watched what, who has done a better job regarding coverage, I thought I'd add a poll to see what we all thought of it.

World is doing excellent coverage this morning IMO. Adrian explained things with the help of the plasma. The plasma was showing a map and Adrian was pointing on locations that were hit by the earthquake. That was something I haven't seen before.

News 24 still carrying World. As David said, Adrian doing an excellent job.

There is a BBC One News Update using the BBC World Ident (quick), BBC News 24 Graphics, coming from the BBC News 24 studio and Sophie Raworth presenting it!!

How very odd!!

EDIT: They also annouced it as Tim Wilcox as presenting it and usedd the quick BBC World ident again at the end!!

This is really wierd - no announcement from Tim Willcox either. I note that the streamed content on bbc.co.uk is BBC World not N24.

When I switched on at around 10.45, News 24 and World appeared to be doing their own things.

Here's a first, though: at 10.05, a phone interview between Tim Willcox and a correspondent in Phuket finished with a BBC News sting, then Sophie Raworth turned up, somewhat unnanounced, to do the BBC One bulletin.

Joint Broadcast on News24 from 1pm with Jon Sopel and Sophie Rayworth

Live close to the region and know all of the affected spots well - especially Phuket and Sri Lanka. The news is devastating. I am supposed to be in Phuket next week visiting friends, but can't even get through on the 'phone to see if they are ok. The networks are - therefore - doing an excellent job in making contact wherever they can.

CNN coverage I thought was rather light. BBC World is doing ok with its rolling coverage. Adrian doing well - I agree.

However, the anchor of the day must surely be Juliette Foster, who remained calm, coherent and in control much more than any other presenter I have seen today thus far.

I am not usually a Sky fan, but have tuned in to Sky more today than World.

Tim Willcox is now on News 24 and World.

Death toll believed to be now over 4000...

"Now on BBC One a news update with TIm Wilcox"

*intresting title varitation*
"News 24 Studio"

"Hello, I'm Sophie Raworth"

Is continuity recorded on BBC One at the moment? Or did someone just put the wrong name on the script for the CA?

Can anyone tell me how Sophie Raworth and Tim Willcox can present two different programmes from one studio at the same time? Or is Sophie in N6?