And so after this little drama, aer you going to share the remaining contents of Ariel with us Rod???
News with added impact
Next Monday BBC News 24 gets a dynamic new look and changes in reporting with more stories from around the UK and a confident claim to be the one to watch
by Cathy Loughran
Prepare for the arrival of in-your-face rolling television news. BBC News 24 is about to shout louder about its breaking stories and play harder to its regional strengths with dynamic images of life across the UK in the countdown to the hourly bulletin.
A whole range of changes comes into effect next Monday in a comprehensive rebranding of the channel and a rethink of its presentation and content.
Editorially, stronger partnerships with colleagues in nations and regions aim to build a more distinctive, less diary, less metropolitan-driven agenda, and new relationships with sport and business journalists will bring them more centrally into the channel.
The new presentation of breaking news, with bigger, bolder graphics to alert viewers, is aimed at changing perceptions that News 24 lags behind Sky on the big stories, says Rachel Attwell, channel controller and deputy head of television news. The government-commissioned Lambert report recommended that News 24 should compete more robustly with Sky to be ‘first to air’.
‘There’s a perception that we’re slower off the mark, but research doesn’t bear that out. Sometimes we’re ahead, sometimes Sky is, it’s about 50-50, although our priority remains quality over pure speed,’ says Attwell.
‘But the way we’ve been expressing breaking news on-screen has not been conspicuous enough. Lots of people watch News 24 in offices with the sound turned down. From next week we’ll be totally unapologetic about grabbing their attention.’
Ten O’Clock News editor Mark Popescu has spent the last few months developing partnerships in nations and regions, sport, business and BBC World which will allow News 24 to take advantage of BBC resources to deliver a service that’s ‘more interesting and more energetic’.
‘The channel hasn’t punched its weight in accessing these resources and this is about better lines of communication. If a story breaks or reaches a conclusion mid-afternoon in Plymouth, we’ll go straight there and then trail the local service on air,’ he says.
Picking up early on national trends and not missing stories outside London will be other spin-offs, he hopes: ‘Take something like the council tax protests. We only did that story when there were protests in London, although there had been demonstrations before then on the south coast and elsewhere.’
Changes to business coverage will see Julia Caesar from BBC World joining the channel in the afternoons for a chatty, accessible catch-up. Another new addition will be the daily Fact File, with Nick Higham tapping into BBC research and analysis to dig deeper behind a story of the day.
‘After a difficult birth, we’re growing News 24 into something genuinely distinctive,’ says Attwell.
The omens are good for the new look channel. Latest audience figures show that News 24 stole a lead on Sky in October for the first time since June 2002, with weekly reach of 7.4m against Sky’s 7.3m.
On-screen branding for sister channel BBC World will reflect the new look, also from December 1.
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This is the new look News 24 branding – dramatic, swirling reds and oranges against a stark black background – and created in-house by a news resources design team led by Paula Thompson.
For the first time, titles and 3-D graphics will be rendered live, with a fresh headline circling the globe every hour, the globe tilted to show the part of the world where the big story’s happening. Bigger, bolder text straps will roll out smoothly in the lower screen and for breaking news, the team has devised a graphics sting which will fill the entire screen.
The ‘transparent’ set, designed by Simon Jago, backs onto glass walls, through which the rebuilt newsroom is visible. Decanting the entire News 24 operation to TC10 while they completed the massive technical refit on the second floor of TV Centre was just one hurdle for the news production facilities team under Alan Whiston. The installation includes latest editing and graphics kit.
They say all this about News 24, but will there be the new music and opening tiltes plus the graphics on the BBC1 national news programmes (1 , 6 and 10 O'Clock News'?)
Interesting to note that you'll happily spend three pages baiting RTS about the article, but when it's posted, no-one has anything to say about the contents.
Now that RTS has been made to look like an idiot, or rather has continued to look one, let's move on to the topic itself while he grooms himself in the mirror.
Not too sure about the description of a headline moving around the globe or words to that effect - I can't really interpret that! The tilting world sounds interesting, as does the full screen breaking news sting. Sounds as though they're really going for it.
Also this Nick Higham thing sounds an interesting addition. I like the way they're focussing on the resources the BBC have - particularly the Nations and Regions "relation building" (!) thing.
Interesting to note that you'll happily spend three pages baiting RTS about the article, but when it's posted, no-one has anything to say about the contents.
Although I did not take part in the "baiting" there was nothing in the article that had not been mentioned on the thread already.
All the publication did was to confirm the details.
Interesting to note that you'll happily spend three pages baiting RTS about the article, but when it's posted, no-one has anything to say about the contents.
I wouldn't hold your breath.
DAS posted:
Now that RTS has been made to look like an idiot....
so BBC World is changing on Dec 1st along with News 24? I hope it turns out well.
I don't think anything drastic will happen to the studio.
I hear News24's new desk is like the BBC One desk in style, oval, with the News24 logo on the front against a dark background. Prob see summat similar for the World Newsroom.
so BBC World is changing on Dec 1st along with News 24? I hope it turns out well.
I don't think anything drastic will happen to the studio.
I hear News24's new desk is like the BBC One desk in style, oval, with the News24 logo on the front against a dark background. Prob see summat similar for the World Newsroom.
What? One of those AWFUL round freezers? BBC would be letting us even more down by having another one of them.
I like the sound of the studio- sounds like it will be entirely glass looking through onto the rebuilt newsroom- kind of like a "real" national news setup. The technological changes and content focus sound very good too. The constantly changing title sequence also seems like a very clever idea.
Altogether very promising; roll on Monday
The only thing that worries me is the bit about breaking news being "bigger and bolder" than before- I hope this only refers to the new full screen flash sting and not some king of extra large aston set. In fact I'm hoping for a reduction in aston size generally.
Very interesting stuff. Thanks to Adam and Rowan for taking the time to put that up!
Nice to see a countdown sequence (albeit completely different) will remain. I was never satisfied with the initial replacement.
Bit worried by the "From next week we’ll be totally unapologetic about grabbing their attention" comment. Memo to Rachel Attwell: Most of us
do
have the sound turned up so don't just appeal to those tabloid journalists seeing flashy graphics out of the corner of the room's TV screen! As to "bigger", it'll be interesting to see how big - Sky size? Eek!
Really like the idea of live rendering of the title sequence. Wonder if they'll just be one headline, then the globe focusing on where then the rest of the headlines being read? Top marks to whoever thought of the idea.
Fingers crossed for the national news and that poor pre-news ident that's been waiting in tow for months from Monday too...
