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CNN Airing GMTV

During the death of diana (January 2013)

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WP
WillPS
I'd imagine GMTV would have given way to ITN and possibly 'claimed back' the time later.
JV
James Vertigan Founding member

The policy was that the 'Sky Multichannel' channels were all supposed to point towards Sky News the only exceptions I think were UK Living and UK Gold as they were connected to the BBC (I don't know if Cartoon Network was exempt due to CNN). I wonder what the independent channels (I.e. those not connected to a news broadcaster) would do today


I think I remember Cartoon Network putting up a caption pointing viewers towards CNN - if so then the message must have gone out across their feeds (or at least the European feed) because viewers watching via non-UK providers wouldn't necessarily have had access to BBC, Sky, or ITN services.

I do wish Nickelodeon hadn't used their standard caption font at the time for their pointer towards Sky News though. It doesn't come across as a very serious font.
JV
James Vertigan Founding member
It was on the weekend of the BBC One rebrand wasn't it? I think one of the complaints was that the still image of ballet dancers was not as appropriate as the clock which, had the relaunch been just one week later, would still have been in use

If it had happened the week before it would have been introduced over a still of the balloon.... though that's probably preferable to the ballet dancers


Much like this one (taken from the newsflash about the start of the air strikes in Iraq)?http://ppfiles.meldrum.co.uk/files/bbc1-news-report.jpg
WP
WillPS
It was on the weekend of the BBC One rebrand wasn't it? I think one of the complaints was that the still image of ballet dancers was not as appropriate as the clock which, had the relaunch been just one week later, would still have been in use

If it had happened the week before it would have been introduced over a still of the balloon.... though that's probably preferable to the ballet dancers


Much like this one (taken from the newsflash about the start of the air strikes in Iraq)?http://ppfiles.meldrum.co.uk/files/bbc1-news-report.jpg

Why was that used in 2003? A mistake?
GE
thegeek Founding member

The plans are very different now, as was seen when the Queen Mother died. The existence of BBC News Channel has made a lot of the old ways of doing things redundant - they can just take over and run with it.
From having seen some rehearsals, there's still a generic white-on-black BBC logo caption to introduce the programme (and provide an easy opt-in for the main networks). Generally the plan is for the News Channel to take over, but I think Newsnight may take precedence if it's already on air.

Interesting on that first clip are the captions on Nickleodeon and UK Living pointing viewers to Sky News and the BBC. I knew that was the policy as I worked at some satellite channels around that time but I've never seen them.

ISTR finding out the news by seeing the caption on Nick (after flicking past BBC One and being briefly confused by the generic DOG).
JV
James Vertigan Founding member
It was on the weekend of the BBC One rebrand wasn't it? I think one of the complaints was that the still image of ballet dancers was not as appropriate as the clock which, had the relaunch been just one week later, would still have been in use

If it had happened the week before it would have been introduced over a still of the balloon.... though that's probably preferable to the ballet dancers


Much like this one (taken from the newsflash about the start of the air strikes in Iraq)?http://ppfiles.meldrum.co.uk/files/bbc1-news-report.jpg

Why was that used in 2003? A mistake?


It was December 1998, not 2003.
IS
Inspector Sands

Much like this one (taken from the newsflash about the start of the air strikes in Iraq)?

No, a still of an ident.. like the ballet dancers slide was


The plans are very different now, as was seen when the Queen Mother died. The existence of BBC News Channel has made a lot of the old ways of doing things redundant - they can just take over and run with it.
From having seen some rehearsals, there's still a generic white-on-black BBC logo caption to introduce the programme (and provide an easy opt-in for the main networks).

In that case they've presumably changed it back to a generic logo, which makes a lot more sense than the way it was done last time
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 13 January 2013 12:27pm - 2 times in total
IS
Inspector Sands
I'd imagine GMTV would have given way to ITN and possibly 'claimed back' the time later.

Although they would probably have ditched the adverts anyway so nothing to claim back
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 13 January 2013 12:28pm
SO
Steven O

The Queen Mother's death was a shambles considering the amount of preparation that had gone into it. Diana's sudden death was covered far better.

I would've thought that the death of the Queen will be treated as a standalone broadcast rather than a continuation of the rolling news service.

Peter Sissons goes into some detail in his book about the coverage of the Queen Mothers death. Mainly that Senior Management were told as soon as it happened, he was told 20 minutes before he had to broadcast the news, after the end of the evening news, and so didn't even manage to write the script him self.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349871/Peter-Sissons-BBC-bosses-ordered-downplay-Queen-Mothers-death.html

It's a pretty interesting read.


If it's any consolation to him it wasn't just the BBC who were caught out that Saturday - so too were IRN after only one of the two Obit Alarm buttons at their HQ was pressed (both buttons had to be pressed in order to activiate it) with the result being the first time most stations got to hear about the Queen Mother's passing was that evening's 6pm news bulletin. Like the BBC, this was something which had been rehearsed many times over only for the plan to fall apart when it happened for real.
MI
Michael
The term 'The BBC, the official broadcaster of the death of Princess Diana' doesn't sound right at all.


That's because that's not what he said.

"I wanna take us back, for a few minutes... this is the way... some of the people in Europe might like to see how the news was shared in Britain by the BBC - the official broadcaster - of the death of Princess Diana."
WP
WillPS
I heard it the way fanoftv presented it too - but your explanation as to what he meant makes sense.

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