Greatest News Themes of All Time

We all have favourite theme tunes and some brief chatter in another thread got me looking at some news themes, and I was wondering what makes the perfect TV news tune.

I nominate as my favourite, HTV Wales Tonight 1997...


Yes, the titles were strikingly similar to those of How Do They Do That, but we'll let that pass.



Not only does it have that classic news-style beat in the background, it is entirely relevant to the area it served: a clever mashup of the National Anthem of Wales and Men of Harlech - no doubt a nod to the H in HTV as well as being a traditional Welsh tune in its own right. Throw into this a grand orchestral sound (this being introduced in the year Wales voted for devolution - it was cool to be Welsh and pompous) and I think it's a pretty perfect, well thought out News theme.

*The above clip is a clean version - on air the pomp continued with a booming announcement introduction "THE NATIONAL NEWS OF WALES"

My favourite regional news theme is still London Tonight circa 2002. It has all the grandiosity that you expect for a news programme in the capital, and I love the swoosh effect on the map near the end with the bonus smooth transition to the studio. Perfectly over the top. And Londoners got to have the brilliant Carlton idents too. Lucky so and sos.

Don't you mean The Day Today?

Mine has to be the BBC Nine O'Clock News from the virtual era. Pompous, but so stirring...

I think my favorite theme would have to be WNBC's 2003-2008 theme. It's bombastic but still graceful, and pretty fitting for New York. It also effectively integrates the NBC Chimes of G-E-C, without being super intrusive like other NBC themes.

Below is a clean version, the segment at 0.24 is absolutely stunning.



I've also had a soft spot for these themes:

CBC's The National 2003




RTÉ News 2003-2006:


These titles are absolutely atrocious, and the theme could have done without the electronic swooshes, but I think the melody is very strong and memorable.

This is my all time favourite...

I can't actually believe that this has been in use for 11 years...so far.

No no, compare and contrast...

A relatively short-lived one that I doubt many people will remember, but I always loved it...



Also, possibly the least newsy news theme of all time, which I absolutely love...



And am I allowed to sneak in a radio one (from 1:02, where it switches to London Newstalk)...?

These may be considered a little too modern for this thread, but if it is classic "traditional" news themes, my favourites are

Sky News - Vote 2001


And the full original 5 News theme from 1999

If these are too modern, then perhaps

BBC Breakfast News - 1994


and London (Weekend) Tonight

I agree with Sky News' short-lived 2001 theme. I've also loved the mid-00s-early-10s TV2 Norway Nyhetene theme. Still disappointed by what replaced it a couple of years ago (also in the clip below).

I had totally forgotten that they'd mixed the pompous news theme with the earlier breakfast news theme to make that!

This is my all-time favourite (the 'flying fish fingers') - with added BBC1 clock


Loved the sense of all the news coming into London and then being beamed out to us. And a pretty majestic tune to boot.

My favorite would be Sky News from 1997/1998

I particularly like the pan out across Europe.