This from c@t:
'....when Sky News Active relaunches, it'll have 8 or 9 screens....'
This from FT.com:
'Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, pledged to cut a minimum of $200m in costs over the next year to gird against continued weakness in the advertising market.'
Error. mismatch.....erm, fzzzzt.
Also from c@t:
'I'm not prepared to pay 4p a minute to log on through my TV.'
It doesn't cost anything for D-Cable viewers to send an e-mail/SMS
BTW, if a news bulletin is so unoriginal, what did you expect them to put on a NEWS Interactive channel?
Knitting?
(Edited by burblebrox at 6:39 pm on Nov. 8, 2001)
What's your point? Murdoch has been cutting costs for ages - primarily costs related to interactive services - and so that won't make a tiny bit of difference. Grey Dyke has been cutting costs, the BBC are still launching an interactive news service, aren't they? Anyway, Sky News active needs a redesign to fit in with the new Sky News look.
Lucky D-Cable viewers, but the service will only be available on Sky for the time being.
My point about the news bulletin was that the service doesn't exactly sound original. The screenshots don't look like they took more than an afternoon to come up with either. Also, I doubt they'll adapt the service for special events. Sky did Active Election Night, when News Active was specially redesigned. Considering how long we've waited for it, it doesn't look either original, well designed or particularly impressive.
Well if DigitalSpy have these 'Exclusive' interactive screenshots, I may as well show you the others that they either didn't get from their source or didn't bother to upload.
Wouldn't that 'Press Red' graphic be out of the 4:3 safe area? It looks like it's futher out than the channel DOG to the left.
Also, (bit OT) has anyone seen that all the screens in Television Centre show N24 in 4:3? Doesn't it look really cool with the clock right in the corner? Why don't they just put the clock and DOG in the far corners and assume everyone will watch in 16:9 or 14:9?
Peter.
RW
RW
peprice posted:
Wouldn't that 'Press Red' graphic be out of the 4:3 safe area? It looks like it's futher out than the channel DOG to the left.
As far as 4:3 televisions are concerned the graphic should appear in exactly the same place whether the box is set to 4:3 full screen or 16:9 letterbox mode.
Quote:
Also, (bit OT) has anyone seen that all the screens in Television Centre show N24 in 4:3? Doesn't it look really cool with the clock right in the corner? Why don't they just put the clock and DOG in the far corners and assume everyone will watch in 16:9 or 14:9?
Because most people aren't watching in 16:9 or 14:9! I suspect the majority viewers are probably watching it in 4:3; and the only way to see News 24 in 14:9 is when it goes out on analogue BBC1 or BBC2.
MG
MikeG
Well I watch News 24 in letterbox mode cos on my 20 inch screen bits get cut off, especially in programmes.
Ratios, Mike G, it's the ratio of your screen, bascially a normal square(well not quite!) television is 4:3(or 12:9) and a widescreen television is 16:9. 14:9 is a inbetween format of 4:3(12:9) and 16:9 shown on analogue.
Wouldn't that 'Press Red' graphic be out of the 4:3 safe area? It looks like it's futher out than the channel DOG to the left.
Also, (bit OT) has anyone seen that all the screens in Television Centre show N24 in 4:3? Doesn't it look really cool with the clock right in the corner? Why don't they just put the clock and DOG in the far corners and assume everyone will watch in 16:9 or 14:9?
Peter.
On a widescreen transmission, the interactive graphics stretches to fit the 16:9 frame.
BU
burblebrox
To reply to your earlier post, c@t:
'What's your point? Murdoch has been cutting costs for ages - primarily costs related to interactive services - and so that won't make a tiny bit of difference.'
Really?
'Grey Dyke has been cutting costs, the BBC are still launching an interactive news service, aren't they?'
I think the imperative word here is launch, as in it's not something that's been knocking around for a while that's prefectly adequate for the job.
'Anyway, Sky News active needs a redesign to fit in with the new Sky News look.'
Why? The old design didn't fit with the old Sky News look anyway. What you're forgetting here is that to run four or five extra windows, Sky News will have to find and produce more than double the existing amount of content, and content costs money, money is something which Rupert doesn't have right now.
Added to this is the probem that News Active can't carry advertising, and is therefore a loss leader for News Corp.
'Lucky D-Cable viewers, but the service will only be available on Sky for the time being.'
Eh???? The article in the UK Press Gazette said Cable wouldn't be far behind, and that it's was just something to do with a new version of the software used to run the set-top bozes which was stopping the Beeb putting this on Cable.
'My point about the news bulletin was that the service doesn't exactly sound original. The screenshots don't look like they took more than an afternoon to come up with either. Also, I doubt they'll adapt the service for special events. Sky did Active Election Night, when News Active was specially redesigned. Considering how long we've waited for it, it doesn't look either original, well designed or particularly impressive.'
The BBC have never done impressive when it comes to things like this - they tend to go for simplicity and practicality, unlike Sky which is a triumph of presentation over content.
It looks like they've aimed for this to be an integrated part of the Text service, hence the design, but that would make it far better than Sky's version. If you can surf the text while switching between ALL the video streams and the existing BBC channels on the CHANGE TV button, that would be so much better than Sky where you have can't even keep video and text on the same screen!
As for special redesigns, well, who needs them if you've already got a simple, easy to read, flexible design to start off with. I saw the Sky Election stuff and frankly, I thought it was crap - I got more information about the results from CEEFAX, and all their video streams kept showing nothing actually happening.
I gather the BBC did an interactive election service on Digital Terrestrial which had its own swingometer, so it looks like they've already shown they will do bespoke stuff when the occasion demands it.
(Edited by burblebrox at 12:46 pm on Nov. 10, 2001)
Quote: from burblebrox on 12:45 pm on Nov. 10, 2001
>Really?
Erm... yes, really. You can't tell me you've not read about Murdoch's disasters with the internet and BIB, can you?
>I think the imperative word here is launch, as in it's not something that's been knocking around for a while that's prefectly adequate for the job.
May I inform you of the fact that this has been in the pipeline for about 7 months now, and that according to Sky they've already developed the technology to supply News Active with 8 screens.
>Why? The old design didn't fit with the old Sky News look anyway. What you're forgetting here is that to run four or five extra windows, Sky News will have to find and produce more than double the existing amount of content, and content costs money, money is something which Rupert doesn't have right now.
If you'd bothered to read the blurb at the launch of News Active then you'd have realised that it did fit in with the old Sky News look - I'd have thought that the red and blue ticker on the bottom of News Active was a dead giveaway as to how it integrated into the service. Their key point about the service when it launched was that it fitted in with the design of the website, thus making it a familiar format for viewers to work with.
>Added to this is the probem that News Active can't carry advertising, and is therefore a loss leader for News Corp.
Yes it can, and yes it will - according to a tech director I spoke to a few months ago.
>Eh???? The article in the UK Press Gazette said Cable wouldn't be far behind, and that it's was just something to do with a new version of the software used to run the set-top bozes which was stopping the Beeb putting this on Cable.
But my point remains - for the time being it will NOT be on cable.
>The BBC have never done impressive when it comes to things like this - they tend to go for simplicity and practicality, unlike Sky which is a triumph of presentation over content.
You can do impressive, simple and practical. I've never found News Active to be anything other than any of those three.
>It looks like they've aimed for this to be an integrated part of the Text service, hence the design, but that would make it far better than Sky's version. If you can surf the text while switching between ALL the video streams and the existing BBC channels on the CHANGE TV button, that would be so much better than Sky where you have can't even keep video and text on the same screen!
From what I understand, Sky operate many different channels on many different transponders. Therefore, it would be impossible for Sky to allow you to view a channel at the same time as the text service, if they were on different transponders - just as BBC Parliament (apparently) is.
>As for special redesigns, well, who needs them if you've already got a simple, easy to read, flexible design to start off with. I saw the Sky Election stuff and frankly, I thought it was crap - I got more information about the results from CEEFAX, and all their video streams kept showing nothing actually happening.
That's your opinion. It was highly acclaimed by most people, The Guardian described it as 'amazing' if my memory serves me correctly. You've sort of ruined your own point here. You say that you shouldn't need special redesigns if the services is practical and flexible, yet go on to say how BBC Text was changed for election night. As BBC News Interactive is modelled on BBC Text it must mean that neither are simple, easy to read and flexible.
>I gather the BBC did an interactive election service on Digital Terrestrial which had its own swingometer, so it looks like they've already shown they will do bespoke stuff when the occasion demands it.
