BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) (/showthread.php?tid=412)

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harshy - harshy - 26-10-2023

(26-10-2023, 04:11 PM)Daveuk Wrote:  Very graphic content shown just then one BBC News from the UN. Far too slow cutting away. 

The ambassador said he was going to show the body cam footage it before he did!

Before that a dead body.

No graphic footage warning, or delay.

Yeah I saw that I couldn’t believe it was actually shown maybe it should have been on a delay or something.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - House - 26-10-2023

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but Jess Brammar isn’t returning to oversee the news channel when she returns from paternal leave. Paul Royall remains interim Editor until a permanent replacement is appointed.

https://deadline.com/2023/10/bbc-charlotte-moore-jess-brammar-1235583884/ 

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Moz - 26-10-2023

(26-10-2023, 05:44 PM)House Wrote:  Not sure if this has been mentioned, but Jess Brammar isn’t returning to oversee the news channel when she returns from paternal leave. Paul Royall remains interim Editor until a permanent replacement is appointed.

https://deadline.com/2023/10/bbc-charlotte-moore-jess-brammar-1235583884/ 

Surely she's returning from maternity leave, not paternity!

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Brekkie - 26-10-2023

Parental leave, not paternal or maternal.

Just seems another case of an exec in public services overseeing the launch of something widely perceived to be a disaster and then getting a promotion.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - LDN - 27-10-2023

Focus on Africa: 
https://ibb.co/P9zWbvb 

The Context:
https://ibb.co/mNsjgxM 

Verified Live:
https://ibb.co/YjxcwTs 

News Now:
https://ibb.co/9pcncpR 

The Daily Global:
https://ibb.co/RQmRVh7 

BBC World News America: 
https://ibb.co/j4kY1nH 

So. 

This really is the new BBC News brand identity, in all its mediocrity. Absolutely nothing but endless sh!tty variations of red circles, and a complete lack of imagination. 

We have the Focus on Africa titles, completely lacking the warmth and character of the previous title sequence, featuring a bizarre iconographic representation of the continent that takes huge geographical liberties to try and make a sort-of-not-really-circularish shape, and which for some reason always makes me think of Acorn Computers. Then we have The Context's titles, which well and truly scrapes the barrel with its utterly facile motion graphics. Could it get any worse than that? 

Yes! Of course it can! Enter the pitiful 1990s-screensaver Verified Live titles; or the ridiculous 'swipe left to refresh' News Now titles, featuring a blurry TV gallery background that means nothing to anyone outside of this forum; or the 'Whatever Corp' flaccid PowerPoint presentation style of The Daily Global's titles... Every single one of them looks like a painfully basic free animation template that someone downloaded from some shady website.

With such a low bar, it's perhaps unsurprising to see some people looking at the new BBC World News America title sequence as an 'improvement'. And yes, indeed, it is better than what we've seen previously. In fact, you can literally see the learning curve of an inexperienced designer discovering and learning new techniques, such as intersecting circles and recolouring individual segments, or the witchcraft of masking tools, and then applying their learnings to their latest title sequence with gusto. I went through the same thing when I was a teenager getting to grips with the Macromedia software suite, and these title sequences are at pretty much the same level as where I was 20 years ago. 

I simply cannot grasp how this pitiful collection of sad, weak animations, loosely held together by nothing more than the mood-board buzzwords of 'red' and 'circles', was approved by any senior designer or manager to be the on-screen brand identity representing one of the world's most respected news organisations. 

And it's only made worse by the lazy re-use of 'generic' bulletin theme music on three of the new title sequences, and the ongoing mismatch of styles between the various BBC News channel programmes, and the National bulletins, the Nations, and Regions -- all of which are also BBC News programmes. The Nations have -- relatively recently -- been given updated title sequences with the older white-background-cats-cradle-globe style (as have the 1, 6, and 10, with the updated BBC Chameleon layout)... and that means those title sequences aren't going anywhere for a long time.

And so, as a result of this brilliant and inspired brand refresh -- for which actual designers and managers at the BBC, paid considerable amounts of real money, will have heartily congratulated themselves and each other -- there are now three completely different design styles for BBC News: 

1) the new anything-goes red-circles-in-literally-whatever-configuration titles, as seen in the GIFs above; 

2) the cats cradle style, recently refreshed for the 1, 6, and 10... 
https://ibb.co/4gSWSQf 

...and for the Nations... 
https://ibb.co/4MRjsbr 

...and 3) the regions, which have their own style with curved/scrolling placenames: 
https://ibb.co/17dCdYt 

And let's not forget that BBC News managerial f**kery also resulted in new titles originally being commissioned for the Breakfast refresh earlier this year with BBC News branding... 
https://ibb.co/vZKphHy 

...before BBC News management decided at the last minute that it wouldn't actually be a BBC News programme after all -- a decision that required new titles to be commissioned, so that BBC Breakfast could have its own blue (!!) circle lazily drifting across the screen in another enchantingly piss-poor animation: 
https://ibb.co/mH9HJrf 

I mean... FFS, there is no rational thinking here; nothing more than arbitrary decisions being made with no expertise to support those choices. There is no evidence of a coherent plan, nor of any design or brand experience or expert knowledge, behind the branding and presentation changes that have been made -- not just to the titles, but also the stupid changes to the lower-thirds, and the f**kery with the flipper/ticker. 

On that point, it's notable that the ticker has quietly been brought back to life in recent weeks, despite the all-knowing and unquestionable assertions of a BBC manager on Newswatch that viewers didn't want it because they couldn't read it on their phones. And let's also remember that the functionality of the second line of the old lower-thirds has been restored too -- the static one-big-headline-on-screen-for-5-minutes-at-a-time, which was useful to precisely nobody, has since given way to a scrolling rotation of large one-line headlines, essentially resurrecting the functionality of the second line of the old L3s. 

Between that and the ticker U-turn, it's about as close as we'll ever get to the BBC acknowledging that its idiotic, inexplicable changes to the L3s were as completely pointless as they first appeared, and that they should never have been made in the first place. Like every other BBC News branding decision over the past 18 months, the changes to the L3s made no sense at the time, or any time; indeed, like every other recent presentation tweak, they looked like nothing more than the product of decisions made by people who simply wanted to make changes so they could point to changes they had made (*COUGH* Lorraine Heggessey BBC One *COUGH COUGH*).

So, that's where we are right now. A brand identity system for a world-class newsgather and newscaster, cobbled together around the flimsiest and saddest of concepts, and bolted onto existing branding elements, along with random and unnecessary design changes made at the inexpert whims of those now in charge. 

This isn't a brand identity. It's a f**king shambles.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - AndrewP - 27-10-2023

Caught the end of Newsday earlier -- do they normally end the programme with what looks like a jpeg screengrab of the titles?
My screen is rather small but I could see that the resolution of the image was rather lower than the rest of the output.

Just wondering if it's some sort of technical limitation or an editorial choice

Also - I must say Mr Arunoday Mukharji has a wonderfully warm but authoritative voice with perfect pace. Feels like a lost art on the BBC.

An edition of The Catch Up also came up, as a young-un it doesn't really connect to me but I do think it'll connect to my peers who it seems BBC Three are trying to target. I also quite like the music, it's sounds fresher to me than some of David Lowe's recent compositions for BBC News.

For the first story at Two the 'normal red' strap popped up before being replaced by the 'breaking red' strap before animating back down to the darker red, the difference is so small that if you weren't paying attention when it happened you wouldn't have noticed!

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - interestednovice - 27-10-2023

The Catch Up really doesn’t work as far as I’m concerned, and I’m also well within the target age range.

I’m dating myself slightly here, but I distinctly remember watching Newsround when I was quite young and Ellie Crisell presented often. Back then, you had a proper programme much like a “real” news roundup for adults. The Catch Up seems condescendingly basic in comparison, and is basically modelled off things like TikTok and Instagram/Snapchat stories with it’s “10 Seconds Of…” and only two or three stories covered. 60 Seconds, on the old BBC Three, was far better and managed to cover a wider range of stories in far less time!

I tend to agree that the young end of the audience, especially, aged around 16-20, will probably like it though.

On a different note though, I do agree that Arunoday is very measured and a solid presenter. It’s nice that they’ve managed to find someone as good as Sharanjit Leyl, who was just as excellent but has sadly left the BBC.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - mccanmat - 27-10-2023

Just watched a bit with Lyse I interviewing a commentator in Cairo… what a car crash - he just talked without any interaction, then she interrupted him simply to remind people they are watching BBC news (for international opt) then let him carry on before abruptly cutting him off to “end” the show

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Spencer - 27-10-2023

(27-10-2023, 12:27 AM)LDN Wrote:  So. 

This really is the new BBC News brand identity, in all its mediocrity. Absolutely nothing but endless sh!tty variations of red circles, and a complete lack of imagination.

I won't quote the whole post, but a huge strong agree on this from me. You've summed up my thoughts perfectly, LDN.

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harshy - harshy - 27-10-2023

(27-10-2023, 11:00 AM)Spencer Wrote:  I won't quote the whole post, but a huge strong agree on this from me. You've summed up my thoughts perfectly, LDN.

Yeah same here LDN said it all it’s a big mess now and sad to see I loved the old bbc world news and to a lesser extent the Uk bbc news channel now it’s just awful.

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