International News Presentation: Past and Present

Seen this in action, it's as messy as it sounds. Headache.

Another example (and nope, you're not tripping out):

A 1990s promo for CNNI's European coverage:

The 9 a.m. TOTH from FranceinfoTV, 2019 -- TV news graphics and set design at their best:

For some reason, the co-presenter who doubles up as the bulletin reader doesn't get credited in the titles during the weekend editions, the weekday bulletin reader does.

They certainly are either pushing their vision mixer to the max or trying to.

In this particular instance the co-presenter is a fill-in... Only the regular presenter gets credited. I don't know why they adopt this approach but it's the same for all of the main Franceinfo programmes. (Conversely, on the radio version they will nearly always record a new intro with the fill-in's name even if that means two different voiceovers in the intro!)

I like the graphics and set design of Franceinfo too but they've become a little bit less consistent over the years, particularly with the most recent rebrand. The standard news bulletins have kept the 'old' intro style while the morning and evening news programmes got an upgrade. It is also getting far less predictable whether an update will come from Franceinfo TV, Franceinfo Radio (some are simulcast) or just not happen at all - the initial rigid format meant that interviews and other features were curtailed often, so they reduced the number of updates, but now I find it inconsistent.

I also much preferred the old news desk which allowed for presentation from multiple (standing and seated) positions whereas now the newsreader is almost always seated in front of a screen.

The current desk area seems to be more for the convenience of the staff who work in that newsroom by not having presenters walking or presenting in their working area by moving them into that largely private area.

Sadly it also means that Franceinfo has become more like their rivals by being stuck to a single presenting area, although they still do use the whole of their studio space for the peak shows.

BFMTV have a soft area, but rarely use it these days, I can't remember the last time since LCI moved to their new studio that they use their soft area and CNEWS simply doesn't have one, still using the same iTélé set.

I miss the ‘stand and deliver’ style of the old headlines from Radio France - again something that set them apart from the competition.

I'm surprised they dumped that for a journalist sitting in a radio studio with headphones on. It doesn't work.

Fear not! This is a temporary solution, the original 'stood up' studio for the headlines is being refurbished but there has been some sort of delay so it's not quite ready for this new season. It needed to be refurbished because the initial design (as you can see in this article: https://www.bce.lu/integration-franceinfo-chaine-publique-information/) meant that the gallery workstation was open-plan, which meant that when something went wrong (headlines in wrong order, technical error, going to breaking news) the gallery operator would have to whisper/frantically gesticulate towards the presenter otherwise they would have been audible/possibly visible. Bearing in mind said presenter would be reading the headlines, controlling the autocue with a foot pedal and the screen with a clicker, often without an earpiece, the potential for confusion was rife. There were a good few number of errors/bloopers with the headlines last season, I'm sure some are on YouTube. The new studio set up will try to mitigate these issues and should be ready soon.