The key thing to know about UK television is that it has to be impartial. Failure to do so could, in the worst instance, lead a channel to lose its licence to broadcast. In other words, something like Fox News couldn't exist. Ironically, we did use to get Fox News on satellite services, but it was withdrawn at some point because even though there's not as much concern from a UK regulator about US impartiality, it was getting into deep water too often, and so got pulled by the then Murdoch-controlled Sky.
That's not to say that there *aren't* argumentative discussions or programmes on UK news TV shows. There's a weekly show called Question Time on the BBC which has a panel of politicians and the like, taking audience questions. I suppose think a weekly town-hall style debate on the issues of the day. The panel is usually balanced politically, and so is the audience. But it can become quite aggressive and the audience can get quite partisan. In point of fact, I avoid watching it because it just doesn't seem to get anywhere. Without getting heavily into the mess that is Brexit, we're at an odd place in British politics in that not only is there the political Left and Right, but within each of the major parties, there are separate Leave and Remain factions. And whatever finally happens with the utter mess that is Brexit, I don't see those differences being quickly patched up. Both Sky and the BBC have a significant presence around the UK, with camera crews based all over. The BBC has about 12 regional newsrooms across the country providing local news, while Sky keeps crews in major cities. There isn't a reliance on video from partner stations as tends to happen initially with breaking stories covered by, say, CNN. The BBC also has a very large number of international news bureaux and while Sky doesn't have as many, it does have to keep up to an extent. It's also worth noting that there are separate Sky News operations in the Middle East (in Arabic) and Australasia. That allows them to share some resource too. The BBC has the World Service which to you might be Newshour on your local NPR service, but is actually about 40 different services in various languages globally, and means that there are sizeable newsrooms in places like Nairobi in Kenya, and Delhi in India. I suspect that only the big wire services maintain more bureaux than the BBC globally. Back to Steve's review of the app. Commercials are usually removed from these things unless they're selling ads locally. When Fox News was carried here, we had filler material in place of ads. (It's worth noting that many ads that are legal in the US would be illegal in the EU - e.g. any for prescription only medicine). We do get ads on CNN, but they're sold locally by a CNN International team and tend to be big international brands rather than local or national ads. In terms of aspect ratios, I think we all know here that anything apart from a rectangular horizontal aspect ratio is the work of the devil. Vertical video is truly awful - try framing two talking heads like that without being a long way away from the interviewees. And square seems to add nothing. Last time I checked, my eyes capture a broadly horizontal regular area, so that's how I like my video framed. Adam On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 12:45 AM Steve Timko <steveti...@gmail.com> wrote: > I downloaded the Sky News app and have been watching it for the last week > or so. As far the live newscasts, the most notable difference is the pace. > U.S. news tends to be faster paced and delivered with more urgency. The > most notable example is ABC’s David Muir, who begins each newscast > breathlessly talking about “breaking news” about an event that sometimes > happened seven hours earlier. Sky News anchors (presenters) are calmer, > something I prefer. The BBC is like this, too. Something else I noticed is > that they present opposite views without getting into insults or a shouting > match, something that seemed to disappear from U.S. news with the decline > of the “MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour.” They had a panel of people on talking > about Brexit and everyone was calm and level-headed. I watched for a few > minutes before I realized some members of the panel had polar opposite > views. Maybe they were just being British and polite. Or maybe they realize > they’re all in the same boat and the ice berg is, what, 47 days away now? I > knew Britain was in trouble but the depth and breadth of the trouble didn’t > hit until I watched a couple hours of Sky News and people discussing the > problems. They still don’t have the Irish border fixed? Scotland is looking > to immigration as a major boost to their economy, but who is going to move > there if their status suddenly changes if the right wing of the UK > government gets their way? And why would Japan sign a trade agreement now > if so many other trade agreements need to be negotiated? May’s government > seems to be in total denial. List member Adam is in for a seriously bumpy > economic ride. I wish we could offer more than thoughts and prayers. > I liked Sky News’ efforts in live interviews with people outside the > studio. It gave a sense that they were out and around Britain. For breaking > news, the videography was standard TV journalism but for special projects > they had some excellent features. My sense is that they are giving the > photographers the freedom to improvise and don’t have producers and video > editors pulling on the reins. > I would love to watch the UK commercials, but they substitute sloppily > edited clips from other interviews. > As far as the app goes, I was surprised they didn’t have a greater variety > of stories each day. A lot of stories carried out from one day to the next. > Most of the stories were built around written news. Not as much video as I > expected. > One maddening feature was the mix of proportion and orientation for the > pictures and videos. Videos moved directly from TV were in the standard > 16x9 horizontal orientation. Material produced specifically for the app > were either square or in a 9x16 vertical orientation. This worked > especially poorly some times. Like they took security camera video of a > woman driving a car into a California police station lobby. The car was > cropped off the screen for most of the video early on – obviously it’s a > horizontal security camera – although towards the end of the video the car > shows up as it drives down the lobby. > Some of the app projects were excellent. The children of Isis is an > example. A great mix of video and written news. > So all in all a good news service. I know the Murdochs no longer has any > ownership rights, but it doesn’t show any trace of FOX News that I could > see. > > > On Tue, Feb 5, 2019 at 6:44 AM Adam Bowie <a...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote: > >> Sadly, as is now becoming all too normal, British politics has become >> incredibly polarised. Brexit is definitely not helping there. Therefore, >> attacking the media seems to have become more normalised. >> >> Check out the responses to any vaguely political tweet posted by BBC News >> or one of their correspondents... >> >> On Tue, Feb 5, 2019 at 1:18 PM Steve Timko <steveti...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> I watched a little bit. It is bigger than I would have guessed. >>> I asked a question using #skynewsraw and checked back for an answer 45 >>> later. No reply. So I clicked on the hashtag to look at the other comments. >>> Three quarters were attacks on Sky News. Half of the positive seemed to be >>> from other journalists. >>> >>> Sent from TypeApp <http://www.typeapp.com/r?b=14391> >>> On Feb 5, 2019, at 3:31 AM, Adam Bowie <a...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote: >>>> >>>> UK TV news network, Sky News, is 30 years old today. To celebrate, >>>> they're simulcasting a second channel today that is full of behind >>>> the scenes footage which they've named "Sky News Raw." >>>> >>>> It's not a wrestling thing. They've installed stacks of Big Brother >>>> style remote cameras, and have lots of interviews and voiceovers. >>>> >>>> Basically, if you want to see how a modern news channel works, this >>>> might be worth a watch. >>>> >>>> They're streaming on YouTube right now, and I *think* the stream is >>>> viewable ex-UK. >>>> >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehHn4eobHRE >>>> >>>> Yes - Sky News *was* owned by Murdoch, although it's now owned by >>>> Comcast. But UK TV rules meant that although it was a sibling of Fox News, >>>> it's a totally different beast and has a decent reputation in the UK. >>>> >>>> >>>> Adam >>>> >>>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
