Sky News

If its costing you a lot of money, then I'm sure a PayPal tipping box where people can give you a quid or two wouldn't go amiss - you've certainly been posting rather a lot!

Very impressive relaunch for Sky News, although I missed the opening few minutes of Sunrise (damn alarm clock).

World News Tonight was a bit of a damp squib though. I don't think James Rubin is right for a news channel.

Nice to see Gillian Joseph on News at 10. I thought she did very well.

Bravo Sky News...

Heh, how often do people give money away... Nice idea though.

Loving the weather graphics. Although why have they shortened the weather slots and why do we seem to be spending more time looking at hurricanes the otherside of the world than our own weather malaise?

Here's some interesting stats from the server log analysis over the past 2 days. Excuse me whilst I put my Peter Snow hat on and get out my swingometer ...

I've managed to shift nearly 1.5Gb of data (this is on a 256kps upload) and the busiest time was around 10 and 11am yesterday morning. The majority of the people visiting the site came from the UK; the rest were from the US, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand and Germany.

Alot of "corporate" hits came from within the BBC and Hitachi (?). But at the top of the tree was AOL, no surprise there then. Also a shed load of people visiting from universities up and down the country.

I haven't seen so much European weather - I used to like the way they put the weather here into a European context.

They have started making some changes, on Sky News Today (morning) they have made the shot that come from below the pulpit quicker, which is good, yesterday it took an age to get into position.

They also seem to be alternating the main anchor job, Anna Botting ( spelt right?) is doing it today.

Now I know some people will think I'm saying some of the following because I used to prefer News 24 and previously didn't like Sky News, but I genuinely have given it a chance, and so far I think that - overall - the relaunch has actually worsened the channel.

I have now watched Sunrise twice, the Sky Report and World News Tonight (firt 1/2 hour). I've yet to see SN Today or L@5, so I can't comment on those.

Most of my problems are with content...

Sunrise

Much as I don't like watching a news programme presented by 2 ballroom dancers (Breakfast) I much prefer this than Sunrise
It dawned on my this morning what was missing - NEWS!
For the first ten minutes of an hour all you get is a news summary and 'coming ups'. Not a single report!

The Sky Report

Again, no news! It's supposed to be a news channel. They went straight into their content and had a summary (and that's all it was) much much later
Their main story - and this is on a respected UK national news channel - was a man who had his mobile phone nicked. Come on! There are hurricanes, huge bomb blasts, a radical overhaul of our education system, but no Sky decide to lead with a petty theft!
One good thing was that the first story didn't last long, but when we'd got into the second I wished it was back. Sky News is now Watchdog! A report (very long, very boring) about suicide on the net. Then a long discussion, then a reminder of the boring story.
The cafe area where they held the discussion was pathetic & boring.

World News Tonight

Again, no news. I've now been watching SN for over an hour and have had no report from Baghdad.
Liked the desk going round with Jamie in it, OK he was a bit jumpy but he'll be fine after a few days.
The interview was excellent. Absolutely top draw. First of all, as has been mentioned, it started by mentioning the hotel bombs - as if to say, "this interview is very recent, not something we had ready just to impress for the launch" - and then the in depth knowledge of Rubin showed again and again. I also liked getting this from an American's perspective, and an American who'd served in the White House.

The weather!

Yes, this was just very very funny! Lots about hurrican Wilma, then a big black rainy newswall with the occasional place name flying past, then some completely incomprehensible mess all over Britain. All of this in about 10 seconds. What's it doing outside? No idea!

So, while the studio's nice(ish), the graphics are OK, and the presenters fine, if I want news, I'll be turning to News 24 - again!

You have to be REALLY careful with 4:3 safe areas on news graphics. If you get it wrong you could potentially libel someone. Imagine if the "not" in "not guilty" got cropped...

Ooops - looks like they have a 24 hour clock in pres and a 12 hour clock in the gallery...

A 24 hour clock would look so much better...

Come on, most Sky News viewers have only just moved on from the big hand and little hand to 12 hour digital!!!!