The Newsroom

CBS Evening News

...on Sky News (May 2005)

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KI
Kikrokos
Hello,

At night, Sky News broadcasts the CBS Evening News, which I watch regularly. Since a couple of weeks, I noticed that only the last part of the titles were played (it begins when the voice-over starts saying: "This is the CBS Evening News..."

Is this change done so by Sky News and if so: why? This happens, I believe, only during weekdays. Does CBS try to make a difference?

And in more general terms: Sky News belongs to News Corp. which also owns Fox News. And sometime Sky News viewers are treated with Fox' reports and correspondents, so that shows the commitment between these two news channels. But then, why does Sky air the CBS Evening News every day? It's not a subsidiary of News Corp. and more some kind of competitor of Fox News, isn't it? I mean: how does Fox think about this?
MR
mromega
Sky cuts the titles before the sponsorship messages and .com promo are shown.

Sky and CBS have had an arrangement for many years, Sky aren't owned by News Corp. News Corp is just the largest shareholder.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
mromega posted:
Sky cuts the titles before the sponsorship messages and .com promo are shown.


But quite often are caught off guard and let one or both of them through.

So American networks can go through the "this news programme is bought to you/sponsored by <name of company and company catchphrase>" stuff then for their news bulletins?
IS
Isonstine Founding member
There's no restriction on sponsoring within bulletins in America. Whole bulletins can even be sponsored should they so wish. It's not unknown that special events such as the State of the Union address will be sponsored by car makers.

Over here of course, sponsorship isn't officially allowed in TV news broadcasts (same goes for news channels) so that's why there's always that generic sting for the channel - under Ofcom (well it was ITC) rules the programme is officially going to a break and therefore the sponsored part is out of the news programme.

Although I think since Ofcom came in, they've relaxed how long the sting has to be on screen so it seems a lot more seamless now.


Oh, and Sky used to show both ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News - CBS seems to be a survivor. (ABC fell in love with the BBC - and as for NBC...could that be to do with MSNBC?)
ST
Ste Founding member
mromega posted:

Sky and CBS have had an arrangement for many years, Sky aren't owned by News Corp. News Corp is just the largest shareholder.


Also they are both in ENEX - http://www.enex.lu/x2enx_partners_pub.php

Ste
PH
phileasfogg
Vaniliuz posted:
Hello,

At night, Sky News broadcasts the CBS Evening News, which I watch regularly. Since a couple of weeks, I noticed that only the last part of the titles were played (it begins when the voice-over starts saying: "This is the CBS Evening News..."

Is this change done so by Sky News and if so: why? This happens, I believe, only during weekdays. Does CBS try to make a difference?


No, the real CBS in North America does this too. Since D.R. left (I don't think we're allowed to say his name anymore...), Bob Scheiffer has been moved in as a sort of non-replacement, and CBS is experimenting with a reduce role for the anchor.

The anchor no longer anchors the program, and lower key titles that don't sound like the voice of GOD is about to speak are part of this.

They'll probably relaunch the whole programme in the next year or so with a completely new format...probably about the same time that ABC realizes that Peter Jennings will probably no longer be the point man for World News Tonight.
IS
Inspector Sands
It's not just the regulatory issue, there's also the problem that a company would be advertised on British TV without paying for the advertisment.

Say for instance that Coca Cola sponsored an american programme which was shown on a UK TV channel.... they wouldn't have paid for the sponsorship over here. Pepsi or any of Cokes rivals over here could cry fowl - Coke is getting undue prominence on that programme
PC
p_c_u_k
Sky News couldn't air Fox News - there's not a remote degree of impartiality in their broadcasts. Fox just about gets away with it because they're an obscure Sky Digital channel - if they were to be an integral part of Sky News, OFCOM might get a bit more interested.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Watching the CBS Evening News puts one thing into context: Ad breaks and their length and frequency.

Notice how many ad breaks get crammed into that 30min segment in that one CBS programme and their spacing. Makes our model look ad-free.
CA
cat
Yes, I think the entire length of the programme is something like 18-21 minutes. Pretty shocking for a main evening news programme.

Tom Brokaw did say when he retired that his single greatest regret was that he never managed to get the show up to a 1 hour broadcast.

But then it is important to remember that the regional news programmes are on at a constant during the day, and they do contain national/international news items, so I suppose they compensate for it somewhere.
HB
HBox
Yes, American regional news is far more advanced and vast compared to ours, understandably, since some of the states are the same size as the whole UK.

I do think our regional news should be a bit more heavyweight in it presentation style, but then, I guess it's down to budget.
CS
Cerulean Sunrise
Isonstine posted:

Oh, and Sky used to show both ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News - CBS seems to be a survivor. (ABC fell in love with the BBC - and as for NBC...could that be to do with MSNBC?)


NBC reports are infrequently shown on the ITV News channel, and I saw an NBC Nightly News - complete with US advertising - shown on the ITV NC back during the Iraq war at about the same time of night as ABC WNT on BBC News 24.

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