sky News: New ideas

I just had a brainstorming session on some ideas for sky news and I thought i'd share some of them with you. ( I tried to find some images from before the relaunch to add the graphics but couldn,t find any)So here is the ideas anyway

1.The countdown is returned with a look at what the hours top stories

2.They'll keep the globe and the statistics but will add images from the major stories they've covered.(Or can show images of some of the people making the news.

3.The titles (on the hour etc.) are returned but will drop to the bottom of the screen untill the introduction is over.

4.RelaunchNow talked about fast movements. maybe they can zoom in fast from the distance to the presenters.

5.The presenters links to the newswall for a 'news briefing' The news briefing is given every half hour and the presenter will give the 3 latest events from the 3 top stories and if anyone has spoken about that story they will be shown.At quarter past and quarter to the hour the 'Hours Top Stories' will be shown. No music will be used.

6.GRAPHICS: Ok the sky news bug and time will be smaller in size and drop to the bottom left corner going across with the active bug on the bottom right hand corner. The Live bug and destination will be smaller and on the right hand corner above the active bug The LIVE will be a small bit larger than the destination but should change colour. Maybe if the graphics are given a light blue or purple colour the LiVE BUG Will get the dark colour (whether blue or purple)

7. The red icon will be smaller and will remain on the screen for the whole report it will also match the graphics colour but darker. (I think it should be blue or purple) The graphics showing the people concered will com across the screen checkerboard or strip style and will be centalised.

8.The 'breaking news' slogan is too stale and is used by nearly every news organisation. They should consider using msnbc's 'New developments' or something often heard on sky news 'unfolding events'

9.Sky One link: Rather than having alive link sky news should use a graphics strip. The left and right icons will be used. One will say 'Latest News' and the other will say 'On 501 now'The top stories will be shown on top of the graphics strip with the latest developments underneath. So what does anyone think.

So those are my ideas, what does anyone else think? (I'LL TRY AND CREATE SOME IMAGES IN THE FUTURE)

SKY news isnt channel 501 for me here though, its channel 121. If that happened, everyone would tap in 501 and end up with Discovery+1!

After reading your suggestions, I had a think myself and came up with the following possible improvements:

1. Lisa Aziz to be the only only newscaster, reading the day's news for 23 hours at a time, with an hour-long countdown at 7:00am, with loud drums to wake Lisa.

2. Reports to be played out on a 80 foot video wall and transmitted from the presenter's viewpoint.

3. No weather, sport or other features/programmes.

4a. A male voice will mutter obscenities between advertisements.

4b. The only graphic to be a yellow, vibrating 'P' in the centre of the screen, which becomes more opaque at times of national crisis.

What do you think of these suggestions?

Ah come on! They're not that bad are they?

No, they're quite good actually, Sky should put them into practice.

Except for 4 (over-dramatic) and 8 (what's wrong with 'Breaking News' anyway: perhaps Sky News should rename to Sky Events Going on Now! )

Some of those ideas aren't bad Todd...

I've put together an animation with the new Sky News Logo, music and added a menu at the start, and Sunrise title. Tell me what you all think!

Download it here

David Richardson

Great enterance to the forum mate! The way Sky News is rendered into 3D is excellent, and IMHO, better than the real one. The only complaint is the background - obviously a background from Microsoft Office.

Thanks mate I love to recreate and play with 3D.
Actually, the background is just a standard gradient fill- when I get time, i'll animate that as well.

David Richardson

That looks great. maybe SKY NEWS should read this board!!

I think it looks incredibly unprofessional when they return from a commercial break without any titles and the presenters are just sitting there - what is the general feeling on this?

Also, the moving graphics in the window I find really distracting.

What's with the clip board at the Sky News wall? Don't they have autocue?? (said with sarcasm)