Sky News Relaunch

From the MHP mailing list and Marcus, the Sky News director.

<<The latest news for anyone who's interested:

From 0600 on Saturday July 28th, all news programmes move from studio 7 back to studio 2 -provided the building work is over. We will not, however, reveal the new set or new graphics then. We will transfer our stand-by set to the 'soft' end of studio 2 and continue our chroma-keying (though on GREEN this time). During August, rehearsals for the new set and video wall will take place. On Monday 3rd September, the new set and new look for Sky News will be unveiled. >>

Although a major setback it does appear that it will be good. Presenters will need to r e h e a r s e in the new set so its all very interesting. Annoying that we will have to wait so long though.

It is a setback, but it makes sense to launch in the Autumn, since it will be to cold to go outside!

bloody hell! how long have we been waiting but then again I agree, it will be nice

I can't belive we have to wait untill september for the relaunch. Sky news must be loosing viewers through this poor mock up set, graphics and music. Why do the presenters need a month to rehearse on a new set,when all they will be doing is reading the news, but with a different background. I can understand them wanting to rehearse with the new graphics, but they could do this now while the set was being built. I personally think somebody is having us on at sky. If only for the reason that , the temporary set is so slap happy, it does not look like it will last till september 2nd. It must be driving the presenters mad.

I wonder why they're bothering to move the whole temporary set back to studio 2 - wouldn't it be simpler to keep it where it is? And, if the studio is supposed to have been fully built by June 28th, how will there be room for the temporary set (presumable including the temporary soft area)? Strange. Interesting that the director says that they'll need time to rehearse with the video wall - this sounds very interesting

The funniest thing is that there is obviously a block on talking about the tempoary set on sky presenters. Not one has commentened about it to my knowledge. What i also do not understand is why use chromakey, rather than a bbc news style screen which wouild look much better. It would also look that much more realistic. If any sky people are viewing, if you can move in to the new set on the 28th, then i would, as with this mock set, and loss of regular programs, live at five etc, you are only loosing loyal viewers.

Sky News are obvisouly completly useless at building new sets. For example, BBC News 24 took it's news bulletins from BBC World over a weekend while the new set was being constructed (it only took a weekend), and vice-versa when BBC World switched to the corporate look. Yet Sky take literally months

It is news content that Sky news are best at , surely what they present from does not really matter. To 99.9% of Sky's regualr viewers I would be surpsised if they even have noticed. The current made up set really looks to the normal viewer at home like the old one as the still see trademark the cirra 80's TV's behind the presenters.

There Must be a very good reason for wanting to wait a month or so, from what has been said they are doing a great deal of work and it maybe that the changes are so fundamantal that time is required to get the new look right. I sounds like it is the biggest change they have done since it was was launched.

I suggest we all wait and then pass judgement when we see it...it might just blow us away.

I hope so, but i do think that the sky news team will get fed up with that mock set before september 2nd. But you are right, it is content that matters, and as far as that goes, sky have it covered.

This channel is a sham at the moment, the sooner the better for the relaunch in my opinion.

Interesting to hear, and a few observations and thoughts :

The studio set may not the only thing that Sky are re-launching. If their gallery has been re-built as well it might make sense to keep the existing set, programme format, graphics style, with which all staff are familiar, so that they can master the new equipment, and working styles that the new gallery require? (If they are moving from Betacart to Servers then the learning curve could be pretty steep...)

Sky are probably using a CSO temporary set rather than projectors as they are expensive, and take up a lot of studio space (which they may not have). Sky also have quite a lot of virtual set kit - which may be quite easy to use to fake and CSO the old backgrounds. It makes sense to use what you have rather than go shopping?

As for the News 24 set during the last relaunch... The sets didn't quite get in and out in a weekend - it was more like a week or two. The old sofa set was removed first, whilst joint overnights came from the BBC World studio. The new news set was then built, again during the joint overnights, in the space the old sofa set occupied. (Programmes which used to come from the sofa set, such as Europe Direct, were in the interim period recorded on BBC Worlds second set) It was thus possible to look at shots on the new news set over quite a period prior to re-launch, again overnight, or during recorded programmes.

The new second set was I think built over the final joint weekends, though I don't think it was actually used until the Saturday after the Monday re-launch.

Sky are lucky to have the luxury of being able to sustain their service from a full temporary studio for weeks on end. They are being quite sensible in using it - and I doubt the vast majority of their viewers notice, or care, that the studios are slightly temporary at the moment.

So do you think this means we will have new graphics as the director seems to say...?