Newsround: New look launched

CITV has been crippled by advertising regulations as it is. Most of their homegrown output bit the dust years ago because of it. It's a wonder that the channel can even survive these days.

Press Gang was the cloest they got!

C4 used to have First Edition hosted by Jon Snow.

It'll be interesting to see how it works. I would have thought avoiding the BBC News brand would have worked in their favour in the past as children potentially associate it with the boring programme their Dad watches, rather than making it look very much "their" programme. You didn't get a blue glassy version of the studio in 1993, they went in a very different direction. I know it pleases all us pres geeks but it didn't work for Radio 1's audience...

I remember seeing an article in the 1980s by John Craven in which he said he had always wanted to appear informal, so ensured he was sat in front of the desk, rather than behind it, as shown in this shot of the studio from 1974.

http://i61.tinypic.com/ixdxfl.jpg

I remember being very surprised at this, as the view of him was always a head shot, as can be seen on the studio monitor. I had no idea that he was in front, behind or on top of the desk (or that there was even a desk, if truth be told). It was therefore a rather wasted gesture.

Where there was sometimes a (very slightly) wider view, you could see the trimphone, but I always thought that was just on a shelf.

EDIT :
AIUI, Newsround did use one of the News studios at the time, so was that desk (which looks more substantial than just a fake background prop) actually serve as a desk for news broadcasts? Perhaps the old 'News on 2' bulletins?

I believe that was the case, one of the main bulletin desks.

Don't Sky News already do this? Pretty sure I've seen some videos circulating somewhere online.

EDIT: Yep - here's the latest bulletin.

Do they really expect kids to watch it there? Same reason why Newsround 24 didn't last long. This programme belongs on a kids channel - but Sky don't own one.

I visited TVC in 1985, I recall the Newsround desk was in the same studio as the one used for Six/Nine ?

Would that have been NC8 ?

It was more or less like that desk in the photo above. The Trimphone was still there, with just a couple of feet of cut off flex on it

NC8 would have been a presentation suite wouldn't it? N1, N2 and N3 were the news studios in that era.

You're right !!

Very interesting. It shows that it works, but would be more suited to a children's channel.

That might be possible, as BSkyB does have partnerships with both Disney (film deal with dedicated movie channel) and Nickelodeon (Viacom ad sales). I doubt it would ever happen though, neither channel has live weekday continuity anymore like at their peak in the early 2000s.