In think the reason presenter inconsistency is more notable on Sky News as opposed to the BBC or Sky Sports News is because they put more focus on having a regular face for the programme as part of what they do - every programme except NSW and skynews.com has the regular presenter's name as part of the title, so when all of them are away at once its noticeable even if it may be unavoidable.
To be fair though after a revamp you would expect them to keep the hosts in their regular slots for a few weeks at least to let it bed in a bit.
This is the problem I had with Sky News when I first got Freeview - the presenters seemed to be forever changing so it never really established itself as worth watching. The October 2005 improved things on that score, but as said why move Colin Brazier about the schedules while The Live Desk is still trying to establish itself in the schedule.
Sky Sports News is always moving their presenters around, yet I don't see them having a problem. The problem is whenever you tune into Sky News, you are getting the news differently. Sunrise is different from Today, from Live Desk, from Afternoon Live, from NSW and Sky News at Ten. Too complicated.
Its only Live at Five, Sky Newsat Ten, Sky News Overnight where you can get a proper Sky News bulletin now. Everything else is just drivel and a mess.
In all fairness, SSN alays has random presenters apart from 3-7pm, that's just the way it works, always has.
Man...people get so obsessed with presenter rosters. I think they fail to realise that:
1) Many presenters only work a 4 day week (JT, Kay etc)
2) As well as negotiating good salaries, presenters also make sure they get lots of leave written into their contracts
3) Presenters get sick, too
4) Presenters sometimes get taken off to do special projects. Or, when a huge foreign story breaks and they are anchoring from the scene for hours on end every day, they get the extra time they've worked back as doil.
Sorting presenter rosters for a 24 hour news channel is not as easy as a lot of people seem to think.
Also...politics comes into it a bit too. They have to keep presenters happy giving them enough air time etc. This is especially true of the "2nd tier presenters" who do the bulletins / live desk etc
I dont think anyone can grudge the presenters their time off etc.
But Sky just need a
little
consistency while presenters are off.....like last week The Live Desk had 4 different presenters. Maybe they couldn't get someone to cover the show all week but surely they could have got maybe 2 people to cover the week.
A strip of red carpet has been added to the newswall/steps. Looks a lot better! It seems to have been widened to be aligned with the end of the steps down to the floor now.
