The Newsroom

"Deconstructed" Newscasts - The wave of the future?

New-style Newscasts - Whats your thoughts? (June 2014)

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NG
noggin Founding member

These have also made me miss BBC Three's 7 O'Clock News. It was pacey and didn't take itself too seriously - but still covered the day's main news, so you didn't come away feeling stupider than you did before you watched it, as I sometimes do with American news programmes.
(IMO it was at its peak when Eddie Mair presented - but there seems to be a dearth of clips online. Anyone else able to track one down?)


The 30 minute BBC Three Seven O'Clock News - originally with Eddie Mair, and then with Paddy O'Connell (as opposed to the 15 minute previous iteration) was a very distinct show. Not dumbed down, and editorially totally sound, but with a vey distinctive look and voice. The appalling DFS sofa-era was a sad ending. (The sofas were not anyone on the show's fault AIUI...)

A lot of the techniques used were quite pioneering for BBC TV News, and quickly filtered into other bulletins. Though it had near-zero level ratings, it was watched by a lot in the industry (though I'm sure they were concentrating on the high-brow C4 News at the same time Wink )

I suspect there are almost no clips because it had such a tiny audience sadly.

It is the only TV vehicle I've seen for Eddie that came close to capturing the same incisive dry wit that he can express on PM at suitable moments. And to think he did PM 1700-1800 on Radio 4, and then BBC Three News 1900-1930 is quite impressive.
MO
Mouseboy33
(I'm clearly a bit late to this thread)
The TouchVision clips remind me of EuroNews - which doesn't have in-vision presentation out of necessity, because it's going out in umpteen different languages. Were their 'No Comment' sections just ways to pad out the end of the wheel and/or give the voiceovers a bit of a breather?

TouchVision is quite interesting in its approach as like you said its similar to EuroNews. Its a channel rather than a program. Its put together by a small team and is broadcasting in a few markets at the moment. I do think that there are some interesting things about it. it doesnt cover breaking news or anything as its not a "live" stream. They claim its constantly updated. Rolling Eyes
But its pretty amazing the graphical work put into creating each story. They do fall down a bit on the music they select for each story. But overall the channel looks good. Its HQ is at WCIU 26 Chicago an indie station that is owned locally rather than being owned by some big media conglomerate.
I think they should do localized versions of the channel with local news inserts. The channels news is basically Nation and International news.

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