Hurricane IRENE - East Coast Impact Coverage

You can't live in a place called Kill Devil Hills and then complain when a storm comes a calling!

http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php/topic/11468-hurricane-irene-live-stream-megathread/

Above is an extensive list of live streams across Eastern cities. As a New Yorker, I've found the best coverage here to be on WNBC and WABC. WNBC has boarded up windows in their newsroom, and WABC is launching a streetlevel studio in two weeks. Hopefully they can withstand the damage.

I'm surprised all these US Networks are letting international viewers watch these live streams. I've tried to watch WABC and WNBC in the past and got hit with the usual 'Geographical restrictions'.

It may just be during the Hurricane that they have 'unlocked' the streams.

What format is CNN US broadcast in when it comes on to Sky? Is it 4:3 or is it 16:9? Whatever it is, it looks horrendous, the picture doesn't even fit all of my screen, got a nice big letterbox instead.

The stations own the rights to the coverage you are watching today (they are producing it), so they are free to distribute it internationally. This doesn't apply to regular network programming, syndicated programming (including some national news segments), and even commercials, which all belong to other copyright holders.

CNN US went 16:9 a while back but CNN International remains in 4:3. Rather than showing CNN US zoomed into 4:3, they prefer to show it in 16:9 but in a 4:3 frame. That means it ends up being letterboxed with big black bands top and bottom. Not ideal and I agree, it looks bad. I really wish CNN Int would go fully widescreen - and Al Jazeera English for that matter. BBC World News managed to do it, so I can't see any logical reason why CNN can't do it too. It would make the increasingly frequent simulcasts look a lot better.

^^^ I wish they would do it too but don't hope for it anytime soon, apparently they have no plans at the moment. The problem is that in the US when they go 16:9 it means they go HD too and CNNI is run from US.

Not only do I get it at the top and bottom, but also on the left and right as well, I think the only one that seems to be ok, is when CNBC goes across to CNBC USA.

Left and right too! Maybe CNN US was showing some 4:3 videos, some of those local channels they simulcasted were in 4:3.

I'll try and capture it next time CNNi switches over to CNN USA.