BBC World News - to 14th January 2013

Erm, Rob is one of about three sports presenters on R4, and last appeared on the Today programme just last Friday.

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Re: the countdowns on BBC World News, don't they normally automatically start at xx:59:00 in the gallery, or does someone have to "start it off" every hour?

Martine Dennis on a Monday evening!! And also from the pod! How rare.

In fact, last nights dual presentation with Nik Gowing and Martine Dennis was bliss. For a moment, I was transported back to the mid nineties, when they frequently presented together and what was then BBC World.

Martine really is an excellent presenter indeed. I could watch her for ages.

And then Owen Thomas and Peter Dobbie following on. A real blast from the past.

Owen doing Biz, I assume. It's his last week.

It used to be the case that the countdowns were played by Presentation from a standalone (i.e. non-automated) server port that was set going and then just left to run. The clip on the server was one hour long, included the full 59-0 countdown, then held for a few seconds before going to a holding (breakdown) sequence. Very useful and neat solution. There are lots of potential problems with backtiming a countdown to the top of the hour, especially if you're coming off a live programme that may or may not finish on time - adjusting the length and in-timecode of the countdown the other side of the commerical break isn't fun. Things may have moved on from an automation point of view of course, but having a standalone, free-running clip counting down to every hour is probably the simplest solution.

The countdowns on the News Channel are played by the channel gallery because they don't have a presentation department (the output of the gallery effectively goes straight to air). I think they too have the countdown automatically running all the time...

“@BBCBreaking: CORRECTION: One western journalist has been killed and three injured in a mortar attack in the city of #Misrata #Libya”

Is it a BBC guy? Funny that only BBC reporting this.

Who's in Misrata for them?

EDIT: Seems to be someone else - “@TomCoghlan: Awful news that the great war photographer Tim Hetherington has been reported killed with other journalists by mortar fire in Misrata.”

From what I can tell, I believe other outlets didn't break the news of a western death in Misratah until the family of Mr Hetherington had been informed. Understandable. Very sad.

Even the brilliant and omnipresent Tim is unable to close-out The World Today slot properly. Almost another full crash this morning!!! In fact, co-pilot Juliette Foster seemed to be more in control of the events than Tim.

However, the wrap at the second edition, whilst having plenty of time, ended very awkwardly as the mics were still up and camera cropped close, catching Juliette holding her hands up as if to say "wtf????", as Tim just sat there and said nothing, leaving her to wrap the bulletin. Very awkward indeed.

On the other hand, great to see him on that slot. It's been a long time since he's been on this early. If I am not wrong, I believe it was also David Eades who did yesterday?

BBCW improved in every aspect last few years but those closings are still a big mess. Not just for the morning shows where they actually play the music but rest of the day is not better either.
Why can't they do what they did for the first half of 2000s and have a nice closing with normal music and a wide shot of the set.

My 4000th post - naturally - had to be made in this particular thread. Where else!?!

And nothing more than a short tribute to some of the bygone fantasticness of BBC World, and the following brands, bulletins and presenters in particular, with some inventive use of the theme music of the eras, plus a few things that went wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjnoiiha_H4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxbd76C6zGk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQuirx8h9_c&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHYHsSKEQ5w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCES8I8g5WE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n95lc2A4C3Q&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzoocV6O5NM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHSs8xVlqNg&feature=fvwrel

The first video above is noted as the first edition of The World Today but the second video is of The World Today using the previous flags branding - was this a different programme or did the poster in the first one just get it wrong?