New Countdown

I'm not sure if you're having a go at me but what I was thinking was 'so what, who cares?' I wouldn't go on an outrage if a countdown didn't show any men, I just think it has gone over the top.
As the BBC is meant to include all minority (and majority) groups then why don't they show any other religious programming aside from Christianity? If they have to change a countdown because it isn't politically correct, then they must also celebrate Christmas and Easter for its religious value as with any other religous festival? (Hannukah, Eid ect.)

Whilst I don't think you can expect the BBC to represent every single minority group in every aspect of its programming, not to include women, who do make up half the population, is rather a glaring omisson. If thinking that makes me a wishy-washy, lentil-eating, dungaree-wearing, round glasses-wearing, Guardian-reading lefty, then so be it.

As for regligious programming, I actually agree with you entirely on that one. I hate the BBC telling me which religion to believe in. Maybe an 'Other gods are available' message should be attached to Songs Of Praise.

i've noticed that they've taken to shouting the first headline to make it seem pacier.

the old world vamp goes with it perfectly though as bail showed.

Saw a 43ish second countdown earlier...it's rather nice, particularly a little drum-beat sequence at around the 30 second mark.

The 4pm TOTH was terrible... Breaking News on Sky News, but News 24 stuck with the Weather, Breaking News strap on top. Then instead of cutting back to the studio they decided to do some promotion - trailers for Newswatch and Subtitles, both of which are shown virtually every half hour. That was followed by a 2 second countdown. Showing the countdown for that length of time ruins the effect... they should have just stayed with the last frame of the subtitles trail.

Talking of trailers, I only have t hear the first couple of bars of the BBCi trailer music and I almost chuck the remote at the TV. I'm not against trailers but they do need updating on a regular basis.

To be honest, they kept the strap on for a reason, the news hadnt broken immediatelty before so there was nothing new to say, surely a breather and possible quick brief for the presenters is not a tragedy.

A reminder 4pm is a shift change on N24 and that might have complicated things.

Normaly if a shift change occurs during a live or breaking news situation. One presenter will carry on while the other presenter swaps with whoever is coming on. Then the new presenter will take hold and the other two will swap. Its happened several times before.

Yet another example of News 24 sticking to weather ahead of breaking news.

It has to stop.

Time to slay the weather monster.

What about people that relay on the weather. BBC is a public service, so it has to account for all.

There was nothing more to say though. The news broke at about 1554, and they stuck with another story initially; then they said what they could, they kept the supers up during the weather to keep people posted. If they hadn't had the weather and trailer break, it would have been nothing but 5 or 10 minutes of repeating the same thing over and over again - "she's dead. She died in the last 15 minutes. It's been announced that Terry Schiavo has died..."

There was nothing more to say in those 5 minutes, and even when they came back at the top of the hour, there still wasn't much more to elaborate on. They ran a package on her background (which is pretty familiar to everyone already, and again tells us nothing new) at around 1603, and it wasn't until around 1608 that we started to get reactions from interested parties.

To make out that the weather somehow delayed the broadcast of crucial details at a critical moment is pure folly. There was nothing to add of any value at the time; had there been, or had the breaking news situation been a developing one, they would have broadcast through the weather, as they often do in times of breaking, and developing stories.