BBC World [soon to be BBC World News]

It's because (like News 24) it is produced in widescreen, however when the signal is sent out it's only as 4:3. Because there might be parts of the graphics not within the TV-safe areas, or for other reasons, they zoom the image out a bit so that you can see a little more.

Basically it's not meant to be a part of the presentation, it's just more of a side effect. It also strikes a balance between standard (older) 4:3 TV's and widescreen ones - on a widescreen TV, with the zoom settings done right, the black bars are on the sides.

This article on Wikipedia does a good job of explaining it.

So does that mean what I am seeing on my standard TV is actually everything a widescreen TV viewer would see?

Basically, yes. Even though they are capable of 16:9, they choose to broadcast a 4:3 picture (probably due to the fact that a lot of countries don't have widescreen yet).

erm, no. Not exactly. You're seeing everything *important* however.

The wikipedia article is quite correct in saying there are two "types" of 14:9 (notice FOURTEEN).

FIRSTLY.
As N24 and world share reports and resources, everything within BBC News is made in widescreen. However due to the nature of BBC World the channel can only broadcast in 4:3.

The small bars allow you to see a bit more of the picture, without being overly distracting like the larger bars are to some viewers. There is still quite a bit more picture to the left and right of the screen, but british TV is show "14:9 safe" so everything *important* is visible.

SECONDLY
BBC News studios and the majority of BBC cameras and footage is in full widescreen (16:9). However things from other broadcasters, archive footage and other odds and ends are in old style 4:3.

Therefore as a compromise, the 4:3 footage has the top and bottom chopped off and is zoomed up to 14:9. This results in narrow bands on the sides of widescreen sets.

What this does is prevents the jarring jump between 4:3 and 16:9 happening in the middle of reports, however as a consequence some of the picture must be sacrificed.

Whilst acceptable in news, this causes controversy in "archive shows" such as "I Love the Eighties" where the only widescreen material is talking heads, and the loss of quality on the archive footage is annoying. Also CBBC crop older shows under the excuse of them using a lot of very fancy effects to go in and out of shows (for example, the show flying into screen as a ball and unfurling).



Hope this helps.

I think Yaloh was asking if he sees everything a widescreen viewer to BBC World would see, in which case the answer is yes. No one, except those in the gallery would see more as the channel is converted from 16:9 to 14:9 before it is transmitted.

However a News24 viewer watching a simulcast of World would see the output in full 16:9 so would get extra bits on wither side of the picture. Often a camera sneaking in as world directors tend to frame for 14:9 only.

Yep, 2 new presenters for Fasttrack. Information here

Yeap, thanks

Mishal Husain is lovelier than ever when she says "Affanistan" instead of Afghanistan.

You should have seen the complaints in the duty log after she did it on the nationals at the weekend. How dare the newsreader pronounce things in a foreign way

Isnt she from Newsround?

Tori Good, whose weather forecasts I don't know why I like watching so much, has become Tory Lacey. Wedding I guess. Or divorce.

I think its wedding - from comments she has made when doing the weather on Vernon Kay's show on Radio 1.