[matthieu1221]

From what people have said on here/TVF, the use of a hand or foot controller for the autocue is quite widespread in UK news. Back on TVF, someone once explained how just after midnight on Sky News they move from having an autocue op to the presenter controlling the autocue themselves, with the handover taking place whilst the first report is running. The Singapore bits of Newsday on BBC World News also used to (not sure if they still do now it’s solely anchored from Singapore) have the presenter do their own autocue, as the handheld controller was quite chunky. I’d be very surprised if the BBC and ITV regions didn’t have the presenter operate their own autocue too, perhaps with the exception of the flagship evening bulletin.

Incidentally, I’ve no idea if it’s true or not but I’ve always assumed that it must be very difficult for a presenter to operate their own autocue if presenting a double headed programme. I seem to remember seeing a clip from GB News doing just that not long after launch, which looked a bit odd on screen as one of the presenters had an autocue controller, meaning that they could basically never look away from the camera. You don’t really think about it, but on double headed shows it’s often natural for the presenter that’s not talking to look at their scripts or turn to look at their fellow presenter (was this referred to as the Elstree triangle back on TVF?), and so when they’re just staring dead ahead it looks quite unnatural!

French TV news channels run on presenter-controlled autocue. It's simple, when it's double-headed, have 2 foot-pedals or 2 desk-bound autocue scrollers!

I recall seeing that on GB News and was thinking it was a bit odd. Did they not have the resources to have 2 handheld controllers?