The Newsroom

Sky News

Sky News HD Launches 9pm tonight (February 2009)

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OR
Oily Rag
noggin posted:
gillw posted:

Anyone know what the "awaiting results" system actually is? Is it a common system across broadcasters?


Quite the opposite - there is huge competition between the BBC, ITN and Sky to get results on-screen first - so they all have people at every counts, and totally independent systems.

Historically some broadcasters' reporters have called seats early when the piles of votes have clearly indicated a particular result - but historically some have also got caught out.

I think the BBC usually wait to be absolutely sure - and so are sometimes seen as a bit behind. Personally for elections I don't care quite so much - as there isn't much you can do to change the result!

The BBC don't use stringers at counts, which is why their individual constituency results are normally slower to be announced than other broadcasters.
DE
derek500
noggin posted:
fodg09 posted:
Looks fantastic in my opinion, nice and simple. Big question I guess is how will the adapt it for SD?


Looks like Sky are rendering their graphics totally differently for the SD and HD channels - so I guess they can lay out the data totally differently for SD viewers, possibly showing less on-screen at any given time, but cycling differently?


This is where BBC HD's coverage is going to suffer. They'll no doubt be using SD graphics in the 4:3 safe area.
BR
Brekkie
Ratings wise obviously the BBC will come out way on top tonight, but it'll be interesting to see is Sky News HD can battle BBC HD, though of course BBC HD is more widely available. It should have ITV HD in it's sights though!
DE
derek500
Brekkie posted:
It should have ITV HD in it's sights though!


I'm sure they'll be few watching thinking it's in HD!!
FO
fodg09
Rather messy graphic on the Live Desk a few minutes ago highlighting the exit poll at 10pm. It featured the new HD logo, the old Sky News logo, the BBC logo and an ITV News logo.
NG
noggin Founding member
derek500 posted:
noggin posted:
fodg09 posted:
Looks fantastic in my opinion, nice and simple. Big question I guess is how will the adapt it for SD?


Looks like Sky are rendering their graphics totally differently for the SD and HD channels - so I guess they can lay out the data totally differently for SD viewers, possibly showing less on-screen at any given time, but cycling differently?


This is where BBC HD's coverage is going to suffer. They'll no doubt be using SD graphics in the 4:3 safe area.


I think Sky have to be careful not to deliver information overload with their graphics in HD.
LR
Lost The Remote
Sad to hear Sky News shunning Freeview again. The Sky channel numbers for the SD & HD channel have been given out numerous times but not one mention of Freeview 82.

It's appalling really. I'm willing to bet that at least half of their audience comes from Freeview and it just gets ignored time and time again by all of the presenters.
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
Lost The Remote posted:
Sad to hear Sky News shunning Freeview again. The Sky channel numbers for the SD & HD channel have been given out numerous times but not one mention of Freeview 82.

It's appalling really. I'm willing to bet that at least half of their audience comes from Freeview and it just gets ignored time and time again by all of the presenters.


It's only really on Freeview as a means of driving uptake of Sky HD. Promotion of the Freeview platform is not conducive to their business model.
LR
Lost The Remote
Square Eyes posted:
It's only really on Freeview as a means of driving uptake of Sky HD. Promotion of the Freeview platform is not conducive to their business model.

Well the first point is nonsense. Sky News launched on Freeview in 2002, Sky HD launched in 2006.

There is no reason why they couldn't give out the channel number for Freeview alongside the others, with Sky News HD being the premium offering.

By ignoring the Freeview audience they are not going to maximise reach and therefore fewer people will see their adverts for Sky News HD in the first place!
MD
mdtauk
Lost The Remote posted:
Square Eyes posted:
It's only really on Freeview as a means of driving uptake of Sky HD. Promotion of the Freeview platform is not conducive to their business model.

Well the first point is nonsense. Sky News launched on Freeview in 2002, Sky HD launched in 2006.

There is no reason why they couldn't give out the channel number for Freeview alongside the others, with Sky News HD being the premium offering.

By ignoring the Freeview audience they are not going to maximise reach and therefore fewer people will see their adverts for Sky News HD in the first place!


The problem is. If anyone on freeview are watching Sky News, they would know what channel it is. Where as with the HD Channel, it is only launching today, and in order to make sure people don't think its HD only, they quote both channel numbers.

You could argue they should be giving out the virgin channel number also, as well as Sky News Australia, Sky News in South Africa, the website etc... etc...
HO
House
DarkestDreams posted:
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2010/5/5/1273067181754/Decision-Time-with-Adam-B-005.jpg

And here lies the hugest advantage of HD news - no safe areas. That looks great, but imagine just how squashed it will be in SD.


Looks OK, I suppose, but does seem a bit full-on! I watch tv to "watch" tv, not so much to read results on screen - in this day and age I have a laptop and mobile for that! That does seem a bit overload, especially when graphics change, update or animate.
RR
RR
Oily Rag posted:
The BBC don't use stringers at counts, which is why their individual constituency results are normally slower to be announced than other broadcasters.
Certainly last time, Sky and the BBC were virtually the same for timing of results, the BBC if anything being a seat or two ahead, whereas ITV were well ahead for the reasons given earlier. I wonder if the Sky use of stringers in seats where they don't have correspondents is an attempt to mimic ITV's system? We shall see later on tonight.

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