Sky News

Well from the ratings reports today they usually get 42,000 for the 15 minute bulletins - anyone know how that compares to the likes of World News Tonight from the 2005 relaunch (although of course the 15-minute bulletins are much cheaper).

When you think about it it wouldn't be a huge step for them to bring in a more structured evening schedule. Instead of SkyNews.com and Jeff Randall Live in the 7pm hour move them to 7.30pm and 8.30pm respectively, with 30-minute Sky News bulletins at 7pm and 8pm. I'd then expand on the Live at Five brand and launch Live at Nine at - well, 9pm.

There has been some complaints about Boulton's question to Nick Clegg.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/apr/23/leaders-debate-complaints-nick-clegg

All a fuss over nothing in my opinion. Credit to Sky for the record figures last night, everyone is focusing on the few negatives but I think on the whole they did a really good job.

The whole point of these debates were to give 90 minutes to the three leaders to hear their views without the opportunity for the media to spin or trip them up.

It was incredibly biased to bring that up, especially without challenging either of the other leaders in that way. Personally I thought Alistair Stewart were far better. He managed to make debate between them flow better, stopped a leader if he were bumbling or not getting to the point and remained completely impartial. Boulton should have known better.

Did the SD and HD channels use the same graphics? I know in SD we had the new logo, and straps scrolling in, but was this the same on Sky News HD, as I personally hated the SD graphics, under the thinking that they seemed like they were made on PowerPoint. To me they seemed very ameteur.

Personally I thought the debate coverage itself was brilliant, I didn't notice Adam's question about the Telegraph, but after 10:00pm I turned off because (and I'm a Burley fan too) Kay was struggling to keep control and stop the Murdoch influence spreading into the program. It would be nice if Sky News and John Riley actually decided that the News Corp. supremos shouldn't affect their programming, but that'll never happen.

Seems Boulton will be back on at 7pm tonight for Randall and Boulton Unleashed.

The listings still show some random programming in HD...

Saturday 24 April 2010 at 23:00
SKY NEWS AT 11 [HD]

Weeknights at 23:00
THE BOULTON FACTOR [HD]

Sunday 25 April 2010 at 11:30
THE SKY NEWS SCOTLAND DEBATE [HD]

Monday - Friday at 19:00
RANDALL & BOULTON UNLEASHED [HD]

Thursday 29 April 2010 at 20:30
THE LEADERS' DEBATE [HD]

Sunday 2 May 2010 at 10:00
SUNDAY LIVE WITH DERMOT MURNAGHAN [HD]

Wednesday 5 May 2010 at 12:00
SKY NEWS TODAY [HD]

Thursday 6 May 2010 at 09:00 - 13:00 Then 14:00 - 17:00 Finally 19:00 - 20:00
NEWS, SPORT, WEATHER [HD]

Thursday 6 May 2010 at 21:00 - 17:00 Friday 7 May 2010
DECISION TIME: THE RESULT [HD]

Wednesday 12 May 2010 at 12:00
SKY NEWS TODAY [HD]


All of these times and dates are correct as I make this post

Nothing on the EPG but previews, but I thought at least the BBC Debate would be in HD on Sky.

Will have to watch it back but I seem to recall the Boulton question re: the Telegraph being in the realm of 'how do we clean up politics?' and Boulton turning to Nick Clegg and prefacing Clegg's answer with the remark of 'you were on the front page of the Telegraph today'.

I don't think that's a problem in itself, but by rights he probably should've said 'you've all had problems with expenses. David Cameron you had to pay money back for your gardening, Gordon Brown you had to pay back money for your cleaner, and Nick Clegg you're on the front page of the Telegraph this morning'.

I think the bigger issue is Kay Burley running around at the end saying to politicians 'Well David Cameron won, you must be delighted/frustrated' when there were two polls, one saying he had and one saying he hadn't.

Think putting her on afterwards was a terrible, terrible mistake which risked damaging Sky's reputation.

The page those listings are on has not been updated in a few weeks. The most recent week to be updated, this week, removed HD references from the build up programmes yesterday and from Randall and Boulton Unleashed tonight. They have also not been advertising the Scottish debate as being in HD.

Jeff in Westminster with Adam tonight for the Unleashed show.

Not a matter of huge importance admittedly but I’d be interested if anyone knows how they adapted the TOTH V/O and openers (if at all)?

They just dropped the voiceover.