[DTV]

I can't really say I'm that enthused about this - sure, new branding and whatever, but I don't really see the purpose of having a schedule that is nearly all 'branded', especially when, as Live, Impact and Global demonstrated in their dying days, there wasn't really a lot of difference between them. Maybe they'll have greater differences between them this time, but that does seem to go a bit against the 'back to basics' turn of the new channel.

I also wonder if they'll manage to hit that sweet spot of 'different enough to justify the branding' and 'not different enough to mean you go hours without the basics'. Personally, I felt the right balance between 'branded' and 'normal' news programming was struck during the WNT-era, and to a lesser extent during the first few years of the 'colourful' branded programmes. Back then they were spaced out fairly evenly, had their own purposes and supplemented the generic programming that filled out the rest of the schedule.

Clogging up the whole schedule makes it more difficult - with Verified Live, for instance, is that going to be a three-hour block largely focussed on verifying stories? Because that as an hour-long programme or a segment might be useful, but taking up a large chunk of the schedule focussed entirely on that means you go hours without basic news. But then if it doesn't primarily focus on that, then the branding is unnecessary and detracts from the main content of the programme.