BBC National News: Presentation

On the 1 o'clock News just now, I noticed that the final 3 astons were not 4:3 safe, and went all the way to the far left of the screen (these were shown during both recorded reports and live reporting). All the astons shown before that were 4:3 safe.

Was this a mistake, or could we be seeing the end of 4:3 safe graphics on BBC News?

It looked to be all the viz generated graphics - both the name straps and "pictures from" in the top left corner. The non-viz live tag was still in the correct place. I doubt it was deliberate as they didn't go all the way across, just looked like everything was shifted to the far left but still in the 16:9 safe area.

Oh dear

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/05/bbc-cock-up-mistakes-halo-logo-for-united-nations-emblem-live-on-air/

Yikes! That shows why using Google and YouTube isn't the best idea for news broadcasters. I think it's really lazy and prone to gaffes such as this, not to mention poor picture quality during this era of HD broadcasting. That sort of mistake would never have been made years ago when the BBC's own library of material was used for such things. There's something to be said for a good librarian who knows such things inside out rather than relying on a producer with the Internet.

Your post suggests that they don't use such a library anymore? Perhaps it's not the same as it was one day in terms of staffing but presumably they have a pictures department responsible for sourcing and cataloguing images for use in news output which would include logos for various important bodies.

Well, I'm not suggesting that they no longer have or use a library. I know that broadcasters still do. But, I'm sure you'll agree that there's now a growing tendency to use YouTube for video clips, such as footage of singers for obits etc. Before YouTube existed, broadcasters would have to dig back in their programming archive in order to source such clips and the result would be a much superior picture quality than the blurry, compressed mess that YouTube has to offer. That's the part I think is lazy - it may be quick to get, but is quick always best? Personally I'd say quality is important too.

Out of interest, how high-res do images need to be to appear on the wall?

Naughty Fiona Bruce just welcomed us to the Six O'Clock News....next she'll be telling us there are updates every hour on News 24!

BBC News at Six will be airing at 7pm tonight because of Euro 2012.

I know people will disagree with me - but regular news should take priority over sport. They can move sport to BBC 2 or the Red button. The news at six should air at six regardless of the football. This is a complete pet hate of mine.

I'm with you George, my main concern this year and no one has mentioned it yet is what will BBC English Regional News be like this year with all of the sport. It is okay for you who have BBC Two available but what about us here in England.