Sky News

Yeah, sorry just realised I was being quite dense. I did mean a show that was on for an Hour every day. I think with The Sky Report, then World News if an hour of politics were to follow then it would not allow enough space to cover 'general' new. Perhaps if it were on later at say 11, that would be more acceptable.

They seem to be thrashing them with the other breaking news too. After 6pm they broke 3 stories in a row. Blunkett, Israel bomb or something and then bird flu in canada. All befor BBC and ITV.

I just wish they'd sort out these radio mic problems, they've been quite bad tonight. At first I thought it was just with the weather presenters at the CSO, but it seems widespread tonight.

This is something that could have been sorted out before the relaunch, it makes the channel look 'amateurish'. Sky are better than this, they should sort it out ASAP.

Radio Mics aren't always that easy to sort out, especially when you have a lot of them, and only a limited number of frequencies. Always good to have a plan-B though...

(Don't forget it might not be that easy to find that local cab firm that is interfering, and then pay for them to fix their gear...)

Does anyone know what's happened to the old Sky News set, any insiders know?

Just noticed that revolving desk, very nice

The Sky News website now works (up to a point) in Safari. Not sure whether it's because Sky have got their act together, or due to the latest update to Safari in OS X 10.4.3

It looks too boxy and the text is too close to the edge as well, I think they need to add some padding in the css.

It appears Sky have fixed the site, as i dont have the update..(didn't know there was one till I read your post)

I would be interested to know what the viewing figures for the evening lineup are like now. After the 1000 viewers debacle, I think the World News Tonight is actually very good, sure James Rubin is a little bit nervous off an autocue, but the actual programme is excellent, last night's debate on Syria was extremely interesting. Similarly, Sky Report is very good, now that they give you the day's news properly, before getting embroiled in 'exclusives'. I think now that Sky have stopped trying to show off what they have, and are simply letting the day's news dictate their coverage, the product is, largely (Live at Five stop being the Fox Report), superb.

I've noticed the BBC are the only ones who ever used the second House of Commons feed (ie. the locked off camera at the far end facing the speaker's chair). They got a few valuable seconds out of this when Otis Ferry and his mates decided to invade the chamber in September 2004 because it took rather longer for it to be switched the the house of commons clock than the main feed.

Some general comments on Sky News (the wind appears to have blown my minidish back in the right direction so I've seen rather more of it this week than last):

The studio is undoubtedly very impressive. I'm not quite convinced of the need for the desk to rotate (and would add the Magic Roundabout theme as a music nomination in addition to Blankety Blank and the others we've already had).

Radio mics are still a problem (is the proximity to the Heathrow flight-path a factor in any of this? I find it difficult to see why this one studio seems to have so many problems given how much other live output comes from Osterley). Also they managed to do the full 18.58:40-18.59:40 weather forecast in complete silence this evening which is the biggest (non-graphics) cock-up I can remember for some time.

I'm yet to be persuaded of the need for 3 presenters at certain times of the day - maybe I'm slightly abnormal, but I find myself guessing who is going to speak next and how much they'll be allowed to say. There is a tendency for it all to become very formulaic so that everyone has to be given exactly the same amount of airtime to avoid any nasty 'gooseberry' comments in MediaGuardian.

Live at Five: quite like the pace and I note Jeremy seemed to have dropped a couple of the silly catchphrases this evening. Makes a change to have one person sitting at a desk reading out stories.

Sky Report: love the extended packages (although I saw the yesterday's one about using coral reef to produce medicines was recycled on Sky News Today this morning).

James Rubin: enough said already. I hope Cat's timeline is about right.

11pm-12am: one of the best changes. I hope to get Sky Plus soon and the extended paper review will go on a nightly manual record every evening.

I've not seen overnights yet, nor weekends - though have seen positive comments here about both.

Weather maps: The flythroughs are a bit confusing/unnecessary but generally I think the new maps - particularly the way they've done the topography - are fantastic. Compare the huge build up and subsequent fallout the BBC maps had with the quiet way in which the Sky ones were introduced.

Graphics: It rather reminds of the old Sky Sports graphics set from around 1998-1999 - lots of white panels with gentle gradients. I hated it when they got rid of those and changed to the blue and red, so this is a nice surprise. They're using block caps much more sparingly - which was one of my pet hates, and I don't find the ticker nearly as annoying now everything's in 16:9.

News Active seems to have had a substantial rewrite as it loads significantly faster and they've ditched the bridging page. The BBC's problem seems to be the huge size of their application (in addition to the fact the six multiscreen channels only expand to 1/4 screen) - I only use it as a last resort.

There really are far too many 'coming ups' - I don't mind being told about a following programme - particularly the appointment-to-view stuff, but I fail to see the need to know what the next report is going to be (particularly when there's no ad break in between). I think (as this lunchtime) the sports presenter telling Kay Burley the Rusedski match has just finished and he "knows the result" is probably taking it a bit far as well.

Twice in the past hour (of the latest Blunkett resignation) I have seen Adam Boulton answer his mobile on air, both times saying "I can't talk now". So don't answer your bloody phone then...

I saw him earlier in the week just standing outside Parliament and fiddling with his ear whilst the Sky News presenter apologised and said that Adam wasn't wired up and we would have to join him later in the programme.Surely they could tell that he wasnt ready and made Adam look a bit stupid!