Sky News Mini re-launch

To be honest, I'd be surprised if any of this happened. I don't really think the idents or logo need updating, there's not a great deal they can do to the set now it's so open-plan, and sadly individual bulletin looks (as easy as they would be with the videowall) just don't seem to interest Sky nowadays.

There were rumours that a revamp for the 9 o'clock news/News at Ten was in the pipeline. But that was more than a year ago IIRC and seems to have come to nothing.

To be honest, I think Sky News's programming policy at the moment is just lazy. The whole day (except for the 10am-1pm slot) is basically one long rolling newscast. If you take a look at this thread on the CNN US revamp, you'll see how much effort CNN (and other US channels) puts into creating a varied, dynamic schedule. Sky News just doesn't bother with this and, as a result, I think it lacks the stature of a big-player in the tv news market. Some of the journalism may be great, but it's wasted on a 24-hour rolling newscast IMHO

But Mark don't for get this statement from the Sky press release a short time back



All the other things -so far- are listed here.

sky news is starting to look a bit stale right now, hopefully with the return of feature programming such as littlejohn in the autumn it should make the schedule a little more interesting, but then it is a rolling news channel, so what should we expect.....

Having looked through some of those press releases, it does look like Sky will be doing a few things differently from September. But even if the news coverage is improved, I still think they need to break away from the all-news approach.

As good as the standard of reporting usually is, they need to set aside a time of day where the news is 'unpacked' a little and reflected on in greater depth. They also need to set aside a time for lively debate on the issues of the day. Littlejohn is great for the latter, but where has it gone? The thing is, much of this already exists on the channel - they have some excellent guests and interesting discussions during the course of the day, but most people wouldn't be able to tell you when they're on. A bit of focus and direction in the schedule would really make a difference.

How about reinstating the 9 o'clock news to a fully-fledged, hour-long flagship bulletin, then turning the 10-midnight slot into 'Sky News Tonight', a slower-paced, more analytical programme where the days events are looked at in depth?

I can back DVEous up on this, my sources at Sky News told me this was happening too (well the music change anyway).

beds, titles or both?

these are the parts of sky news that need the least work (maybe the beds are a bit generic) but the graphics need to be polished - but keep the slug!

Hopefully a breakfiller won't go amiss. And they sort out the way they go into adverts at the top of the hour, it goes right into it as soon as they start they about to close.

I've seen Sky News Australia's breakfiller and it works very well - they use the Business bed.

Perhaps the new music, is to go with new idents/bumpers etc.

As the music would most probably be produced by an outside agency, this may be why information about it is being discussed, but the titles will most probably be worked on In House

Love it or hate it, the current Sky News ‘look’ is by far the strongest identity they have ever had. It’s only really been these past couple of years that Sky News has become a household name for news. Where as you could put that down to the unstable world we live in at present, or the lack of trust people have in other news sources due to scandal etc, it must also be as a result of a very basic straightforward branding that is easy to remember.

That logo and that ice cream van style theme tune is now synonymous with breaking news amongst the general populous. Sky News have always had an extremely strong presenting and reporting team, they have in the past just lacked an appropriate way of getting this across. Now they have people onside, they can start tweaking and playing with the format with people’s attention firmly focused on them.

Its better explained using this analogy…

…If your computer has a lethal virus, what do you do? You reformat the hard drive, stripping your computer of but the bare essentials, and then start reloading your software! It’s the same with sky news, it needed a complete restart, and it’s done that, now it’s starting to add further elements.

Evening schedule also being tweaked possibly with a more Sky News Today presentation style.

- Oh how boring of you, Martin. From the initial post in this thread, it is obvious that the poster does not wish to give any more information. -

I'd imagine the poster has no idea of what any changes will be, along with everyone else. True to form, after much ambiguous discussion, the staff will find out through osmosis and meagre communication about 2 days beforehand. Trust me - that's how it works.

Can I ask politely, maybe I have the different perspective of someone who works there, but what is the fascination with Sky News?
What do you find so jaw-dropping about repetitive and largely functional rolling news coverage? I'm really at a loss.

I'm not trying to be sarcastic, but do you have equal awe at other rolling fomat channels, like QVC, Avago, etc?

Martin probably wants a better idea so he can design some ideas of what it may look like. From the stuff I've seen of his work before, it is better than what is used on air.

I can only assume the interest in Sky News is that it is famous in its own right - not many people havent heard of it.

QVC, Avago - complete sh*t if you ask me. I wouldnt waste my time even glancing at these channels.