I watched the Media Society panel event on GB News earlier this evening.
It was chaired by Andrea Catherwood with Alastair Stewart, Ray Snoddy, Lis Howell and Kevin Bakhurst from OFCOM.
Alastair Stewart was naturally effusive about working for the channel describing it as “profoundly exciting” “stimulating” and “collegiate”. The audience numbers were “just fine” and engagement was “phenomenal”. As other GB News presenters have pointed out on social media, the channel says it is performing relatively well in ABC1 and 16-34 demographics.
All panellists were sympathetic to initial technical issues and were confident that these would soon be ironed out. Panelists also thought GB News would add to the plurality of UK media and it should be remembered that it is not a Public Service Broadcaster.
Ray Snoddy was the most critical describing it as “underwhelming” and much the output outside of Andrew Neil as needing work. The local reporting also needs to be more than simply sending a reporter out on location.
On the subject of news bulletins which many thought were missing, Alastair Stewart said that were considered not necessary given how easily news is available.
Kevin Bakhurst said that OFCOM has received around 500 complaints, principally about Dan Wootton - not that the number of complaints influences OFCOM’s ultimate findings. He described GB News as having been “professional” and “engaging” in discussions with OFCOM prior to launch although he claimed he hasn't watched much of the channel since launch. Kevin also agreed that “due impartiality” can be achieved by having a range of voices across different programmes. You would also assess a magazine format differently to a straight news bulletin.
All thought GB News would be around in a few years’ time, partly because it has the financial backing and that its owners are unlikely to be doing this for a financial return.
There wasn’t really much discussion of the aesthetics of the channel such as the set design - the inherent inflexibility of which is I think one of its main weaknesses.
If this is the standard of news people are prepared to tolerate then there is not much hope.
About 15 minutes ago they went to a Breaking News animation about England playing Germany in the next round of Euros. The animation mixed out to a shot of a monitor with show logo in it for a few seconds instead of Dan. It all seemed technically clunky after that, with shots of guests being left up for longer than felt natural when they weren't speaking and front page graphics not available. I'm wondering if whatever they float into the running order for breaking news messes up the automation. Dan looked very annoyed at one point, tapping frantically on his phone.
Omnipresent post_id=23530 time= user_id=858 Wrote:I watched the Media Society panel event on GB News earlier this evening.
It was chaired by Andrea Catherwood with Alastair Stewart, Ray Snoddy, Lis Howell and Kevin Bakhurst from OFCOM.
Alastair Stewart was naturally effusive about working for the channel describing it as “profoundly exciting” “stimulating” and “collegiate”. The audience numbers were “just fine” and engagement was “phenomenal”. As other GB News presenters have pointed out on social media, the channel says it is performing relatively well in ABC1 and 16-34 demographics.
All panellists were sympathetic to initial technical issues and were confident that these would soon be ironed out. Panelists also thought GB News would add to the plurality of UK media and it should be remembered that it is not a Public Service Broadcaster.
Ray Snoddy was the most critical describing it as “underwhelming” and much the output outside of Andrew Neil as needing work. The local reporting also needs to be more than simply sending a reporter out on location.
On the subject of news bulletins which many thought were missing, Alastair Stewart said that were considered not necessary given how easily news is available.
Kevin Bakhurst said that OFCOM has received around 500 complaints, principally about Dan Wootton - not that the number of complaints influences OFCOM’s ultimate findings. He described GB News as having been “professional” and “engaging” in discussions with OFCOM prior to launch although he claimed he hasn't watched much of the channel since launch. Kevin also agreed that “due impartiality” can be achieved by having a range of voices across different programmes. You would also assess a magazine format differently to a straight news bulletin.
All thought GB News would be around in a few years’ time, partly because it has the financial backing and that its owners are unlikely to be doing this for a financial return.
There wasn’t really much discussion of the aesthetics of the channel such as the set design - the inherent inflexibility of which is I think one of its main weaknesses.
Ofcom wouldn't naturally intervene because despite GB News being branded as a "news channel", it isn't. There is very little news on it at all.
If news updates or bulletins were introduced, it would become a news channel and require further regulation. Currently, it's nothing more than a "Friendly TV" style talking shop.
I don't think this is at all what Andrew Neil was aiming for, but it's going to be hard to transition back to the traditional news channel format now.
As others have mentioned way way earlier in this thread, I fear the likes of Sky will relegate this channel to either the "lifestyle" or "religious" segments of their EPG's before long given the distinct lack of news.
MrUdagawa post_id=23550 time= user_id=1184 Wrote:About 15 minutes ago they went to a Breaking News animation about England playing Germany in the next round of Euros. The animation mixed out to a shot of a monitor with show logo in it for a few seconds instead of Dan. It all seemed technically clunky after that, with shots of guests being left up for longer than felt natural when they weren't speaking and front page graphics not available. I'm wondering if whatever they float into the running order for breaking news messes up the automation. Dan looked very annoyed at one point, tapping frantically on his phone.
This is why there is an inherent problem doing news at the channel. Of course breaking news is great on screen, but if the staff behind the scenes can't get it right then its a waste of time.... It was also 20 minutes late.
Breaking News is clearly not GB News' strongpoint.
Another sting for breaking news right now on the Britney Spears story, yet the strap was talking about England playing Germany.
No offense intended to the staff at GB News, but these are very basic things to deal with....
What are they basically saying about it? My french isn't terribly good. :?
eyeTV post_id=23571 time= user_id=1517 Wrote:What are they basically saying about it? My french isn't terribly good. :?
The reporter mentioned the technical difficulties, the editorial agenda, a mention of "woke" and what it means, advertisers leaving and ratings being good for the debut.
Those of you who can't speak French can use the subtitles option and then click on the settings cog and change the subs to English.
The Great British Breakfast had a rather sudden technical fault this morning for several minutes from about 06:41 where it cut suddenly to a regular GBN ident while one of the presenters was mid-sentence. After a minute, there was an (probably unscheduled) ad-break followed by one of the pre-launch promos.
The GBB came back on air at 06:48, but sound was muted for a few seconds bnefore we heard the presenters speaking. There was no apology for the technical fault, nor did they even acknowledge it'd happened!
News genre
A channel will be allocated a channel number in the News genre if its programming is
predominantly news and/or current affairs.
https://www.skygroup.sky/regulatory
No requirement for news bulletins. And no one can argue that GB News isn't predominately 'current affairs'.
This talk of Sky possibly moving GB News to Religion or Lifestyle is nonsense!
derek500j post_id=23584 time= user_id=1363 Wrote:News genre
A channel will be allocated a channel number in the News genre if its programming is
predominantly news and/or current affairs.
https://www.skygroup.sky/regulatory
No requirement for news bulletins. And no one can argue that GB News isn't predominately 'current affairs'.
This talk of Sky possibly moving GB News to Religion or Lifestyle is nonsense!
BBC Parliament doesn't have news bulletins either!
Andrew post_id=23587 time= user_id=791 Wrote:derek500j post_id=23584 time= user_id=1363 Wrote:News genre
A channel will be allocated a channel number in the News genre if its programming is
predominantly news and/or current affairs.
https://www.skygroup.sky/regulatory
No requirement for news bulletins. And no one can argue that GB News isn't predominately 'current affairs'.
This talk of Sky possibly moving GB News to Religion or Lifestyle is nonsense!
BBC Parliament doesn't have news bulletins either!
Banish it to Lifestyle!!
JayCasey post_id=23563 time=1624488086 user_id=1740 Wrote:Breaking News is clearly not GB News' strongpoint.
Another sting for breaking news right now on the Britney Spears story, yet the strap was talking about England playing Germany.
No offense intended to the staff at GB News, but these are very basic things to deal with....
Will be interesting to see how they deal with a major breaking news story such as an armed conflict or terror attack.
Normally this shows the strength or weakness of media outlet. With a commentary and guest style of presentation it could create difficulties.
On the upside if the worst was to happen at least they could bring in Colin and Simon at quick notice to switch coverage to a more newsy tone.
https://twitter.com/afneil/status/140799...42016?s=21
Why keep comparing to Sky News and BBC News??
GBN isn’t a rolling news channel. It isn’t offering the same service as Sky News and BBC News and therefore will attract those who want topical discussion rather than rolling news.
GBN is infotainment and not rolling news or news bulletins.
GBN is constant opinion and discussion about news stories that people will have found out about through other companies. It’s more like a rolling Loose Women or Sky Papers type of programming.
Notice he's not talking about their performance over the rest of the schedule.
8PM is hardly prime news channel watching time either, being in the middle of prime time TV schedules. And Euro football.