Sky News presentation - new newswall

I'm not sure if this was a technical fault or testing out something new but during the Pistorius special at 3-4pm the normal ticker bar, breaking news ticker bar and clock went semi transparent but was back to normal at 4pm

After the sports update at 22:27 the vitality sting played briefly then cut back to the presenter before fading to black going into an ad with the sky news logo still on screen then it froze before going black again finally crashing into a report on the shark attack

Also noticed how often they show the camera shot of an empty desk during the sports section

I seem to recall a few pages back somebody mentioned something about wanting to see breaking news coverage in our archive content on Catch-Up.

I can report that's exactly what we've done to mark today's ninth anniversary of 7/7. If you go into the Featured section (the first page you get to when you select Sky News), it's currently the second option available. There's about 8 mins of on-the-day breaking coverage (presenters: Dixon/Dunkley/Etchingham/Roberts), followed by an end-of-day summary VT from Peter Sharp.

It would be great to hear everyone's feedback.

ETA: After this week, the package in question will be moved to the 2005 entry in "The Vault".

Tim Marshall today announced via Twitter he is to take a 6 month sabbatical from Sky News. This comes after a 6 month period where Tim was absent for long periods due to pneumonia. I hope to see Tim back next year back to his best in his first class analysis of foreign affairs. He has been sorely missed for much of this year and I hope this isn't the beginning of a long goodbye as I still believe he has a substantial contribution to make on foreign matters for Sky News.

Just had a watch - the catch up service is really coming along and I must say I have used it several times for shows like Week in Review.
As a presentational geek, maybe a couple of TOTHs wouldn't go a miss and I'm not sure from a logistical POV but allowing the breaking news segments to just roll for some time as the day developed instead of just those 10 minute packages. Though it probably wouldn't be in the best interest of the average viewer to do so but I guess it's work an ask

Absolutely great so far.

TVNewsroom has that covered plus forgetting names on BBC News.

There are a number of reasons we wouldn't go beyond 10-15 mins in most cases. Firstly, because the nature of major breaking news is that often the details aren't clear so both viewer and production team have to sift through a lot to get to the heart of what is known. That was certainly the case with 7/7.

Secondly, a flabbergasting amount of video gets sent through Sky's servers every day, so to send through an archive piece of hyper-extended length would clog up the system, not to mention annoy my lovely colleagues! Also, people probably wouldn't (by-and large) want to sit through anything much longer, and if we can do the story justice in twelve-and-a-half minutes (which is an awful lot longer than usual), why make it even longer for the sake of it?

Obviously, we can't just do pres-type-stuff for the sake of it as I'm sure you understand. Indeed, TOTHs and suchlike are often deliberately foregone in the event of breaking news, but bits and piece will, I'm sure, crop up here and there in amongst various items.

Today, I've been working putting astons (we call them "supers") on a VT from the day William Hague became Tory leader in 1997, together with his resignation statement in 2001. I think I'm right in saying that's running in our Featured section tonight and for the next few days. Over the next week or so, you're likely to see items on the anniversaries of Tony Blair's ascension to the Labour leadership, the foiled July 21st bombings, and the birth of Prince George.

All that, and I've still got to deal with actual news from now, too! It's great, though, to hear that people are enjoying it, and we do have lots of other compelling stuff planned.

As much as that unflattering angle adds to the video, here's a clearer (and slightly longer) version:

Hard to have many qualms with the coverage of two huge breaking stories tonight - strong content across the board.

They are doing well, however it's times like this that I really think it could be beneficial for double headed presentation. Each presenter could then focus on a each story or allow the other presenter to gather information/ prepare for interviews.

I think double headed would've worked too. Anna Botting, in my opinion, doesn't provide the same 'oomph' that other anchors like Andrew Wilson or Jeremy Thompson have.

Interesting that Sky aren't doing the VoiceOver and pans for TOTHs with either Colin or Kay. It doesn't really make sense and I don't see a reason as to why they're doing it.