Sky News presentation - new newswall

That may be something we do in future, but as I'm sure you can appreciate, it's still an evolving thing. That said, your feedback is very welcome.

It's by no means static. For example, tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of Tony Blair having purple-flour-filled condoms thrown at him during PMQs (ahh, we were all so young!), so this morning, the on-the day VT was added to the Vault. Similarly, when Monica Lewinsky wrote an article about her experiences for Vanity Fair last week, we added a double-length VT, the first containing a report of Clinton's denial and the second his confession, all neatly put together in context and telling what I hope is a reasonably full story.

Bottom line: It won't just sit there - it will be reactive to events - whether that's anniversaries, (sadly) deaths, or new events that make old events newly-relevant, so do make sure you check back often.

I'm not quite sure how a screen grab of BBC One programme info relates to Sky News. Nevertheless, I'll entertain it by pointing out that the programme info doesn't actually mention anything to do with the European Elections.

Sky's main European Election coverage is on Sunday night - as advertised on their ticker. This coincides with the closing of the majority of polls across Europe.

I see Sky have added a purple to their election branding what with UKIP being more popular/relevant this time round.

A today on sunrise promo was just shown

This years election coverage was not the finest from a presentation point of view, I think it's the worst I've ever seen from Sky News.

First you had the ridiculous situation with Anna Botting and Adam Boulton sharing a Desk, but both on the same side of it not to obscure the big screen.

You then had the press preview coming from the screen which resulted in some very awkward shots when using the big screen for election coverage for some strange angles and zoomed in too much to avoid showing the sofa., thankfully after the last press preview that was resolved.

Between 10 and midnight there was a strange mix of normal Sky News graphics and the decision time graphics and they were using normal Sky News Stings with the decision time graphics, and normal Sky News music, when I was expecting the decision time music and theme since that is what has been hinted at!

At midnight we finally got the decision time music in full and for the stings and then it went back to the standard sky news stings (the piece of music which is at the end of the former theme tune) and music again from the next break and at the next top of the hour.

You then had Michael Thrasher presenting from what looked no bigger than a broom cupboard and soem rather peculiar shots of people working in the studio in what seemed to be very small areas. The whole studio looked cramped and small.

Now I know that people are saying the new studio and the big screen is great since they changed it, but this was it's test of carrying a major event tonight, and it failed.

The graphics used for the coverage were very lackluster - the 'ios 7' look in which the graphics were flat and had no gradient looked far too plain - especially in comparison to the ticker. The split screen background was 4 colours at the bottom of the screen with a plain background; and to be honest, looked like Sky weren't even trying.
I think Sky are trying to get rid of the reputation they have for being OTT and are trying to become more like the BBC, but I don't think it's working. They're cutting back too much (the music, graphics etc) and changing the wrong things (the onscreen presentation- especially the removal of the HD Side panels, the change in ratio for the HD graphics and the new logo).

The tiles used for the main graphics, which didn't use the election time music until midnight - looked horrible and had no likeness to the rest of the graphics of the night


I also found it pretty disappointing that there were only 3 live reporters throughout the night with the same guests at Sky Centre for the majority of the coverage.

The double headed presentation would have been good if they had rotated the desk so that the shot was in front of the big screen (and they utilised Anna more) it would allow for a nicer background which can be changed to anything they wanted at the time.

That decision time music was only used at midnight. at 12.15 it reverted back to Sky News normal music and the 1am top of the hour was also the normal sky news music

Can anyone comprehend this? Now we had the election music for the coming up sequence, but the sting is still the old and normal one.

Back to all the old sting again all the time, it's like the election music is desperately trying to force it's way into the programme to replace the bland crap.

I must admit, the graphics seem to be massive, all over the place and not as polished as is usually expected from sky. They don't even seem to animate well.

The whole election coverage has been poor from the graphics, to the music, to the use of the studio, the layout and the presentation and use of guests.

It's the worst I've ever seen, for the first time in memory I've watched the BBC which is unheard of for me but this year they've been by far better.

The graphics started going downhill when they stopped having a separate feed for HD and SD graphics some months back. What basically happened is they scrapped HD graphics in favour of 16:9 versions of the SD ones.

Sometimes (extremely rarely) it manages to force its way into the programme as at 9:20 pm. This was so far the only time the election tune appeared tonight. I also have to say that I miss Martin Stanford at the big screen.