News 24 vs. Sky News

I've read many posts over the past year about how the BBC is better than Sky and how Sky are better than the BBC etc, but I've never actually replied to them.

I work in the industry and I'm a huge advocate of Sky News as a brilliant rolling news service. Before anyone asks I don't work for them!

I don't really watch BBC News 24, however this afternoon I watched from 5pm till now (6.10pm) just because I was interested to see what their service is like.

I was absolutely appauled to the point that I was actually amused.

How can anybody seriously compare them to Sky? There are so many mistakes and cock ups that just make them look unprofessional and like some amateur run news service!

At both TOTH sequences (5pm/6pm) Jon Sopel got mixed up (could have been an autocue problem) and ended up um, ah, um ah during the headlines. 2 of the headlines being read didn't match up to the VT's being shown. 3 satellite feeds went down in the past hour and the presenters didn't seem to know how to cope. The interaction between the presenters just seems false and the jokes they make are just cringe worthy. And to be honest it was just dull as well.

I'm not going to sit here and list the reasons why I think Sky is 100 times better but I can safely say that I think Sky deserve their RTS award this year and if News 24 carries on as it is, Sky will be getting it for the next 4 years as well.

Ben

Yea, I saw the cock-up at the TOTH, but i don't think you can judge a whole Channel from just one Hour.

Usually Sky News breaks news first, but then they just fill the rest of the time repeating what the newswire said.

News 24 on the other hand, gets the news and then finds out more about it before breaking the news on air.

But it wasn't just the cock up at the TOTH although it did make me laugh.

It's the general layout of the channel as a whole. I watched it for an hour and a quarter during prime time and I was seriously shocked by how clumsily it seemed to be put together.

I don't agree with you on the analysis thing. When news breaks Sky get analysis on it, guests in, reporters out there etc first.

Worth pointing out the News24 has achieved a greater audience reach than Sky News every week for the last 20 weeks (as of last week).

What's Sky News' motto? Always first, sometimes wrong? Or is it 'not wrong for long' -- yes, that's the one.

I'd rather News 24 found out more before breaking news for the sake of accuracy, rather than trying to compete in a childish game - and that's all it is - with Sky News.

It's unfair on your part to base an analysis of BBC News 24 on just one hour of one day. You say you watch Sky News more, so you have a better idea of what they have to offer, as you've seen more of it. If you rarely watch N24, to make a judgement on just one short viewing is very unfair.

For a kick off, Sky News is not immune to cock-ups and technical faults. You have to remember that any news channel, be it Sky or N24, is a completely different operation to a scheduled mainstream bulletin. They are heavily rehearsed and polished so that they get it right first time on air. For a news channel, that is impossible. All the directors and presenters are doing their thing live for the first time -- there's no rehearsing.

I don't know why you find N24's format "amusing". To me, it's just like any other news channel -- headlines, news reports, business, sport and weather. Not that different to Sky News. Can't see where you're coming from on that one.

Ok, yes sometimes N24 is slower with the news but Sky News is just so horribly Americanised. There doesn't seem to be any noticable structure to their bulletins and the commercial breaks and weather "sponsored by..." and sport "sponsored by..." and business "sponsored by..." is enough to drive you daft, not to mention their complete over-use of computer graphics and these 'reconstructions' of court cases. With N24 you have no breaks, a definite structure and a more accessible service all round.

I think you're unfair to comment on commercial breaks there. The BBC doesn't need them because they have the license fee to fund the channel, whereas they're an necessity for Sky News - where else would they get their money from? (Don't say subscriptions - Sky News gets very little as it is an FTA channel). Same goes for the sponsoring of the weather and the business - sport is no longer sponsored.

You might say that Sky "overuse" reconstructions and graphics, but the reconstructions are what have won sky awards in the past. Like it or not, they're successful and useful - and that's why sky do it. Same goes for the gfx - they're useful and help to illustrate the story in hand.

No structure to bulletins? They're not bulletins. It's a rolling news service, and that's the whole point. If there's a breaking news story they're not just going to drop it in favour of Francis Wilson now are they? There is a structure - of course there is - it's called a running order and every news channel has one. Sky news use their's loosly. You still get 2 sport updates, 2 weather updates and a business update every hour, plus news headlines every 15 minutes. If that's not a structure, then what is?

Americanised? It's just a matter of taste really. Sky are bold, bright, brash and in your face. I wouldn't really call that Americanised, but each to their own, eh?

Fair enough, I accept each point you've made and can't deny that each one is valid. I just think the N24 is a nicer package as a whole.

Alright News24 is the fastest at breaking news. Whereas Sky does seem to have this moto (as Uncle Bruce so excellently put it ) of "Not wrong for long". The BBC prides itself on its actuacy, which is why im still having problems with the Hutton report, but thats another matter.
And yes News 24 isn't the best technologically mided bulletin. (titles, need I say anymore) But News 24 is far more reliable and when they run with a story there's no stopping them. Take the Asian Quake, within 10mins News 24 was on the line to its correspondents in the region. Then an hour later there were reports from upto and above 4 correspondents, with videolinks, phone and reports been sent back. Its also unfair in another aspect. Sky cateers for a single audience, wheras BBC Correspondents have to incorporate Radio Services, such as R4 and World Service, Tele such as News 24 and World, National and News Special. Overall News 24 does very well in getting, checking then following up from correspondents on the ground.
The format of News 24 is somewhat sloppy I would have to agree, but following the introduction of the countdown there have been some changes to this format.
The best example ive seen of News 24 so far was during the Beslan Seige. N24 had Steve Rosenburg live within 10 minutes in Moscow and in Beslan within the hour.

No it isn't.

News 24 were just as guilty as Sky when it came to John Prescott "announcing a General Election" last week.


Apart from the weather, stories no-one cares about to fill time, and don't forget to squeeze in those trailers for BBCi every half hour.

Your definition of region is quite vague... They had someone in Singapore. That's like an Indonesian channel using a correspondant in Madrid for something that happened in Stockholm.

Reports within an hour? I don't think so.

Sky correspondants report for Sky News, Sky News Radio and Five News now (this latest addition doesn't seem to have hampered their ability to report in any way). Its correspondants also provide stuff to Fox News in the same way Sky talks to Fox corresepontants. OK so it's not exactly the same and as demanding, but hardly one single audience.

So does Sky. It just tells its viewers what it knows as it does these things instead of hiding behind closed doors so it can make sure its perfect when it gets to air, which is what the BBC does. Sky aren't afraid of showing colour bars when a feed drops off air, or devaiting from the running order - its presenters are experienced in doing this and do it well. In my opinion BBC News 24 tries too hard to be perfect - perfect graphics, perfect reporting, perfect presentation - and that's often its downfall - it's graphics become complicated, its reporting of breaking news becomes slow, and most of its presenters look like they don't know what to do when they have to deviate from the script.

Rachel Havey in Banda Ache
and Tim Willcox narrating a video report.