It's been in the pipeline for months, well before any details of the Sky relaunch leaked - so to say it's a pre-emptive strike at Sky is wrong.
It might bring back some memories of UK Today though....
No, let's be honest here- it's been known that Sky were going to go down the primetime programming route for well over 12 months now.
Yes, it should have been in the planning from long ago given the Lambert report, but are you honestly saying that launching this new look primetime show barely 2 weeks before the Sky News switch is no coincidence at all?
Yes. It is a coincidence that it's just before Sky's relaunch. September's always good for a launch - after everyone's back from the summer. The decision to do this programme was taken months ago - then it was case of sorting out the funding and the (limited) staffing. Notice I said "details" of Sky's relaunch - as in what show was going where, not that they were making changes. And two weeks before? Forgive my ignorance, but has the date officially been announced yet? And how would the BBC know with certainty in advance? And then create a new programme from scratch just to get a spoiler in two weeks beforehand? It doesn't work like that.
It's wrong to assume that any move News 24 makes is a response to something that Sky has done or will do. There's a real culture there of deliberately not doing something that Sky are doing; if similar things happen, it's usually because there are only so many ways of doing TV news. In the past, Sky usually innovated more in rolling news, but that's not the case so much these days (possibly famous last words before their relaunch!). The feeling at News 24 at the moment is one of confidence - it's beating Sky very comfortably in the ratings, and Sky are betting the ranch on a mightily expensive relaunch to try and get their old lead back.
I've no doubt their new product will be slick, but presentation and visual style (dated though their current set is) isn't Sky's real weakness. With a few exceptions, their journalism is nowhere near the same class as the BBC's - their packages are often poor and their lives can be stale. If you've got Sky+, do a compare and contrast on the way News24 and Sky handle the top story of the day. Eight times out of ten Sky will probably be flashier, but you'll learn more about the story from News 24. Sky is losing some of its edge in dealing with a breaking story, and their threshold for accuracy seemed to collapse during the London bombings period - and that's probably had consequences for the way viewers see their integrity. They're up against it now - and they're going to fight back by partially moving "upmarket" towards BBC territory. Interesting times.....!
Does anyone know if this will have different branding from the regular bulletins or will it be the same as every other hour?
I would hope they would have made a little effort to make this look different. Wouldn't be surprised to see it all presented from the right hand "pod" with the desk inserted (like it is for Sportday on Saturday).
Well going by what happened with TWT and News Extra on world they'll probably just type the words "News 24 Today" into the box on the titles generator and set them off.
To be fair though News 24 Sunday had their own (crap) titles despite it only being a temp show.
To be fair though News 24 Sunday had their own (crap) titles despite it only being a temp show.
Though that was so that when clips of political interviews were used later on main news and other channels, the News 24 branding would be in the background.
News 24 Tonight won't be repeated, it's the one doing the repeating!
Well going by what happened with TWT and News Extra on world they'll probably just type the words "News 24 Today" into the box on the titles generator and set them off.
To be fair though News 24 Sunday had their own (crap) titles despite it only being a temp show.
Well with BBC World, when they have News Extra one, the globe becomes orange and it says BBC News from BBC World with the News Extra text being all jittery!
