NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC affiliates and TODAY

As with most things done by NBC, the lighting is always the best in the business. The lighting design is simply brilliant. Nary a hint of washout or shadow spots or anything. Superior lighting design as usual by NBC.

Indeed. They even have their own series of lights called LightBlade.

Oh the Today Show has for the past three years trained a Puppy with a Purpose helping give the dogs the foundation needed for further speciality training. Well this time around Today has their own dog but four other affiliates have their own puppy - Atlanta (WXIA), Baltimore (WBAL), Boston (WBTS) and Los Angeles (KNBC). The puppy made its debut on WBAL and they will be in studio atleast once a week.

Instead of writing a new post I’m copying and pasting one I made over at TVNewsTalk.

The new Telemundo Headquarters which was announced in February 2016 is now opening its doors to its first employees. If you look on social media, #TelemundoCenter, an open house was held for employees.

The Telemundo Center consists of 475,000 sq ft of main building consisting of offices and studios; 100,000 sq ft of warehouse space; house upwards of 1300 employees; and cost upwards of $250 million.

There are 13 studios ranging from 800-8,000 sq feet which will be connected by an almost pure IP network according to TVNewsCheck.

Naturally being in Florida the building is designed to handle hurricanes has a waterproof shell. I’m not sure if the building is any of the main hurricane evacuation zones - something which they had to do last year with Hurricane Irma.

Bienvenidos a casa! Today we welcome our employees and
families to celebrate the opening of #TelemundoCenter. @Telemundo @DonFranciscoTV_ pic.twitter.com/IXamYfivF8

— Cesar Conde (@cesarconde_) March 17, 2018

Excited to see that our newsroom is almost finished at the new #TelemundoCenter. pic.twitter.com/gBvpGfuVRV

— Adriana Correa (@AdrianaNBC) March 18, 2018

—

The facility will be used to house all of Telemundo Enterprises and be used to produce news, sports and telenovelas*. The existing NBC/Telemundo Owned local stations WTVJ/WSCV will remain in their current facilities. I need to look at a map but I believe the local stations offices are better suited for newsgathering and are centrally located. Additionally they are relatively “new” at being under 20 years old.

* Some of the telenovelas that were made at the existing headquarters apparently won’t be making the move and will now be produced internationally for less money. It resulted in about 100 layoffs of mainly senior technical staff. I believe the ones making the moves internationally are Telemundo coproductions.

Edit 2 : Might as well add Telemundo to the title as well.

NBC ran a Special Report today around 1600 EDT about the DOW plunging 700 points. Everything was okay except next to the main Special Report lower third they played out the Nightly News animated bug for about 50 seconds instead of the static peacock.

I was going through my TiVo and found a NBC News Special Report that was having a real identity crisis (the one above was minor). This one I believe was probably produced by MSNBC as they used one of their anchors. The special report starts out as normal but then it proceeds to have an MSNBC election results ticker and the standard MSNBC chyron on screen. It wasn't until two minutes into the report that the standard chyrons appeared.

The special report was anouncing the death of former First Lady Nancy Reagan on March 6, 2016.

I know some of the procedures have been discussed before, but in terms of volume - how many Special Reports would typically air across, say, a month? or is it very much just in response to something significant? May be hard to generalise on this. I'm just wondering where the bar is set for deciding when to go to air? (especially in the age of a President how likes to make dramatic announcements seemingly multiple times a week.)

Are they much more regular these days, and are some networks more likely/trigger-happy to put them to air compared to others?

With Sky News and BBC News channels being so widely available over here, it's pretty rare for programmes on other channels to be interrupted by a news report.

Before the Trump administration there would be months at a time where there wouldn’t be any. But now it’s about once or twice a week with big news. Things like school shootings get special reports and depending on severity follow ups.

Rkolsen wouldnt you say that NBC and most networks have must carry Special Reports and there are special reports the affiliates can opt out? Say for example most NBC O&Os will always carry network Special Reports. Not sure what WBAL-Baltimore would do. Or what Hearst's viewpoint is on carrying network special reports across all their NBC affiliates. Dont know why I remember seeing that or reading that some where there are special reports they can opt of.
Having said all that, the number of Special Reports has certainly increased because of the nuttiness of the current administration. They used to be quite rare. Typically they occur now I believe outside of primetime hours. Unless its a very very very significant story.

For example the Bin Laden story was carried during primetime.

Some stations can opt out of Special Reports during rolling coverage of local breaking news or severe weather coverage.

Wait, Lester Holt said that it was 4PM ET. Nicole Wallace has a show on MSNBC at the same time live from Studio 3A behind Lester, So is that background a screen?

There’s actually a movable screen with monitors on both sides that divides the newsroom in half. On the 3A side it plays out video of people working at their desks with 3C empty but the screen lit up (unless you look closely it looks real) and on the 3C side it shows 3A.

On certain shows like the 5AM show First Look you can see straight back and see the real monitor wall in 3C. But when they cut to a camera and show the anchor speaking you can see the wall lit up in the background to the side.



There are special reports that definitely are must run but then there are optional ones. However if it happens outside of network time an operator must switch to the correct satellite feed. Only Fox has the ability to switch to a “must run” Special Report which they call a Level 1 and it’s done remotely through their splicer system.

There’s probably no group wide affiliate philosophy rather it’s done at the local level. It depends on the news at hand. However if a report is carried during network time it is certainly carried through the end.

Also I’ve heard of NBC O&Os not carrying reports - some because they choose not to or they are in a newscast and will produce coverage locally or already covered it.

Some stations may cut out of special reports like certain press conferences with foreign leaders (not a true one but a predetermined type where each foreign and domestic get two questions - the US have been giving theirs to really friendly outlets that throw softball questions) that start during other programming but end during newscasts. The stations will cut out after both leaders have given their opening remarks and that has happened on WBAL and WJZ (a CBS O&O).