[Canada] CBC News

Hello, everyone. Long time listener, first time caller.

CBC, the Canadian PSB, did a total refresh of their news division this week. Perhaps the biggest change is that the 24 hour channel, NewsWorld, got a name change just a few months after it's 20th anniversary. Now it's just known as the CBC News Network. I have to say the new typeface looks a little bit old fashioned:

http://i36.tinypic.com/15343fn.png http://i37.tinypic.com/2yoz5p3.png

The media presser for this change also introduced new looks for local news and NewsWorld, er, News Network shows, and a new newsroom in Vancouver.

http://i33.tinypic.com/30tia2e.png http://i37.tinypic.com/v7ecfn.png

And a new set for the nightly flagship show, The National:

http://i34.tinypic.com/24mt5e1.png

You can watch The National at this address here to see how it looks (sadly, CBC seems to have cut their somewhat secret Windows Media stream of NewsWorldNetwork a few weeks ago). The graphics are acceptable, but the opening is even shorter than the already short opening that had been used for the past several years. Many viewers are most fond of this old, longer version with narration.

As far as the set itself, it looks alright enough since most of the time the camera is fairly close to whoever is talking. To me it looks a little bit like a smaller Sky News. The desk looks like a BBC hand-me-down that they haven't plugged in to light up the innards.

http://i35.tinypic.com/254zpeu.pnghttp://i36.tinypic.com/xpa7g1.png

The most jarring thing is that the anchor was at a desk for the entire programme in the last arrangement, and how it's a mix of standing in front of a screen and sitting at the desk. What's most uncomfortable about the arrangement is that they don't seem to have a second chair, meaning correspondents and guests stand and deliver to a seated anchor.

Here's probably the worst example, where a guest (a former military leader, no less) is forced to stand while interviewed by the anchor at the desk:
http://i34.tinypic.com/16ba3jd.png

Overall, I think it's alright but they need to get another chair!

I like the set, looks like MSNBC's actually. Also, am I right in thinking that the titles look a bit reminicent of the old titles from 2002/03, with the blue white and red lines - the ones which were most popular? The music isn't very powerful though.

What are the graphics like on the news channel?

It looks really BBC-like in places.

It's not groundbreaking, but it's modern and effective enough.

Thanks for sharing this with us, BTW!

Well, if my post didn't make it entirely clear, I don't live in Canada, nor near it, so I only get to see what they have online. They used to have a 24 hour stream of the channel that went dead a few weeks ago, since then they still stream breaking news from the news channel in their Flash-based player (look for the yellow "Watch Live" strap).

Their commercial before the videos shows some shots of the News Network sets, though:

http://i33.tinypic.com/2uixl02.pnghttp://i38.tinypic.com/bg1wg9.pnghttp://i37.tinypic.com/2ducw9j.png

These next two shots definitely look like old sets that have been redressed, though:
http://i37.tinypic.com/2u77n90.pnghttp://i33.tinypic.com/sze5ch.png


To compare, here's what kind of perspective they had on their old NewsWorld sets, the camera is uncomfortably close to the anchor by US standards, British newscasts feel like they're practically a whole football field away. Pulled from the YouTube time capsule:

http://i34.tinypic.com/5aj9zq.pnghttp://i33.tinypic.com/29c2zgi.png

Though programmes (like Politics, above) would appear in the evening hours, much of the daytime was spent with "Today" (now renamed News Now), which often featured one anchor in front of a newsroom:
http://i37.tinypic.com/2rhxv2f.png

If you want to see what an average day on NewsWorld looked like before these changes, I guess this would be a good example because it has a :30 bulletin at the start. The strings music over the bulletin were added in 2008 (originally to the start of The National.) I haven't seen any videos yet (either live on their site, or on YouTube) of the new presentation.

Their "News at Six" local news shows are entirely watchable online, the graphics are pretty much the same as NewsWorld's but the newsrooms look very different from region to region, it's not just a matter of a different title or skyline projection behind the desk.


edited to add: here's a wide angle shot of the new set for morning/afternoon:
http://i37.tinypic.com/2myxma1.png

It looks as though they've done quite a lot to refresh CBC News, but really, serif fonts don't work that well with some multi-media outlets...it's not just TV and t'internet, but mobile too.

EDIT:
Just noticed the late 90s 'videowall' for the entertainment section. What's that all about?

Not sure about the vidwall. They've been streaming more shows online than just The National now so I've been trying to take a look around.Here's a video of the Politics set being built.

The new DOG and straps seem very influenced by CNN's new looks. The show DOG is animated just like CNN's, something I find a little distracting but they're not too bad. Every graphic, segment intro, etc is using those same serif fonts. Their previous graphics packages weren't up to UK levels of detail, but did appear to be in the right format. Now everything looks like the cover of Newsweek .

Also, like many American news shows, titles now have the regular anchor's name in them: "Power & Politics with Evan Solomon", or "Connect with Mark Kelley"

Here's politics with the show's DOG and the new straps. On the actual TV feed there's a logo with time and temperature to the right of the show logo:
http://i38.tinypic.com/2ekupm9.png

And here's a normal, desk shot of the Morning/Daytime running news set:
http://i38.tinypic.com/35b8pvn.png

Looks like he's in a shop. "Will that be all sir?"

Well, for those interested, this re-do has been disastrous for the CBC. Out of all responses, I'd say about 99% or so are the most negative. At first people were grousing about all the money invested in DOGs, and the amount of money invested in them with so many journalists out of work. The other problem is that the channel now resembles CNN with moving show logos and such in the bottom right, and Canadians generally have a knee-jerk negative reaction to anything perceived as becoming More American. Finally, there's a wide belief that the news content has been severely watered down.

Even the CBC's own comedy shows are starting to take the mick out of it, though they've been gentle and simply gone after the lack of anywhere for people to sit down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJqZutRDWg

Interesting that they've switched from a sans serif to a serifed typeface. SVT have done the same I think with their news - Rapport is now using a similar serifed typeface..