CW
cwathen
Founding member
On Sky News; it sounds to me like they're just going to put it back the way it was before. It started off as an American-ish rolling news service, but with a distinctly different feel to some hours. This reached it's peak around 1993 when virtually every hour had it's own title. Over the following years this was honed a bit, and it's presentation became a bit more 'British'.
Then came the september 2001 revamp, which disposed of individual programme titles (even though they are still listed on numerous listing sources) and introduced that awful wishy washy music and a far too in your face saturated red and blue logo (although it did of course bring in the excellent videowall, which has since been copied by others). That's when it became just the same thing over and over again which is now being identified as a problem.
Although what they are saying now is of course designed to make it sound like it's new look will be an evolution, it wouldn't surprise me if it feels more like the Sky News of 6/7 years ago than something completely new.
Not that it matters any way, I'm sure on here discussion about the new look Sky News won't get beyond 'why isn't it in widescreen?', 'when will it be in widescreen?' and 'it's crap because it's not in widescreen'. Along of course, with various polls predicting when it will change to widescreen.
As for Sky One trying to style itself on the 'US rolling cable network' with 'more US imports' - well isn't that what it allready is? If, as I believe, E4 will go FTA but at the same time will completely retool itself and won't be anything like it is now, then Sky One could well reclaim some of the damage that's been done by E4 (which I still believe is the single biggest reason why Sky One went so crap). Having watched it the other week for the first time in 6 months, it did appear to be on the up. Again, I'd imagine this 'new image' will just result in them clearing some of the fillers out and replacing it with some new imported series which they've been able to get hold of.
But, is claiming that it will be better because it's 'more US-like' really a good idea? To me, such marketing as about as dubious and questionable as supermarkets which prefix certain potato and chicken products with 'American style' to try and add consumer appeal - and I'm not sure there is any at all to be gained from doing that.
Then came the september 2001 revamp, which disposed of individual programme titles (even though they are still listed on numerous listing sources) and introduced that awful wishy washy music and a far too in your face saturated red and blue logo (although it did of course bring in the excellent videowall, which has since been copied by others). That's when it became just the same thing over and over again which is now being identified as a problem.
Although what they are saying now is of course designed to make it sound like it's new look will be an evolution, it wouldn't surprise me if it feels more like the Sky News of 6/7 years ago than something completely new.
Not that it matters any way, I'm sure on here discussion about the new look Sky News won't get beyond 'why isn't it in widescreen?', 'when will it be in widescreen?' and 'it's crap because it's not in widescreen'. Along of course, with various polls predicting when it will change to widescreen.
As for Sky One trying to style itself on the 'US rolling cable network' with 'more US imports' - well isn't that what it allready is? If, as I believe, E4 will go FTA but at the same time will completely retool itself and won't be anything like it is now, then Sky One could well reclaim some of the damage that's been done by E4 (which I still believe is the single biggest reason why Sky One went so crap). Having watched it the other week for the first time in 6 months, it did appear to be on the up. Again, I'd imagine this 'new image' will just result in them clearing some of the fillers out and replacing it with some new imported series which they've been able to get hold of.
But, is claiming that it will be better because it's 'more US-like' really a good idea? To me, such marketing as about as dubious and questionable as supermarkets which prefix certain potato and chicken products with 'American style' to try and add consumer appeal - and I'm not sure there is any at all to be gained from doing that.