GB News: Launch

[AllWillBeWell]

Thanks to Pdwill1976 on the DS ratings thread

Tuesday

6am – 9am
GBN = Great British Breakfast 0.046M (1.5%)
* Yesterday 0.079 (2.5%)

GBN = Andrew Neil 0.072M (0.4%)
* Yesterday 0.153M (0.9%)

Figures from broadcast.

Quite clear that figures are going to plummet once the initial curiosity's gone. Andrew Neil's more than halved in a day! How many of those 72,000 were only watching for the car crash and will vanish if it becomes technically competent?

Did GBN ever publish what it was expected to get? or a target

[Cassia Tuna]

Sky Digital was not without its problem when it launched back in 1998:

Only a week into Britain's digital television revolution, angry consumers are in revolt themselves with many complaining at the service being offered by Sky television.

Thousands have been unable to sign up, with frustrated existing subscribers going out and buying receivers from the stores rather than wait for Sky to install one.

Mike Hadfield in Sheffield gave up on Sky and bought a digibox from Dixons last week which they put in on Tuesday. He said they took five hours and were not able to get any reception of channels.

"They said it was a faulty viewing card and I have to wait a week for another one", he told News Online. "A friend has had the same problem."

Internet newsgroups such as alt.satellite.tv.europe are filled with hundreds of complaints about Sky's service. They include:

Sky Digital is offering fewer channels not more, as advertised. CNN, Eurosport, TNT, the Cartoon Network and many foreign stations available on analogue receivers are currently not appearing on digital.

Sky told News Online these were not part of its packages, but some would be coming soon to digital.

BBC Radio, also available on analogue, cannot be heard on digital.

Those subscribers taking advantage of a £40 discount on the cost of a new receiver can suffer their analogue equipment, which may have cost hundreds of pounds, being taken away.

Sky admits the equipment is taken away but says customers have the option of keeping it, providing they pay for extra cabling. (Update: E-mail correspondents reacting to this story have told News Online that they have been able to keep their old equipment by not ticking a box on the contract they have signed which allows Sky to dispose of it.)

More than 650,000 people have requested information about the digital television service but only around 200,000 set-top boxes are expected to be installed by Christmas.

Sky denies its subscription management service has been deluged with complaints. A spokesperson said there had been a delay in sending out the information packs which explain how contracts can be signed to receive the service, but this was due to the enormous demand.

He said installations were generally problem free and faulty viewing cards would only be isolated cases.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/188506.stm

[James2001]

Gloria De Piero just cut off an in studio guest telling him that his microphone wasn't working, when it was.

Clearly so used to them not working that they don't know what to do when they are!

[Worzel]

Don't know about anyone else but I'm getting the feeling of a bit of hostility brewing between the presenters at the moment. The last 10 minutes have been like people gritting their teeth and quips at each other.

[thecorrector]

Thanks to Pdwill1976 on the DS ratings thread

Tuesday

6am – 9am
GBN = Great British Breakfast 0.046M (1.5%)
* Yesterday 0.079 (2.5%)

GBN = Andrew Neil 0.072M (0.4%)
* Yesterday 0.153M (0.9%)

Figures from broadcast.

For comparison on Tuesday:

Kay Burley on Sky News - 67,000
Great British Breakfast on GBN - 46,000
Breakfast on the News Channel - 38,000

Andrew Neil on GBN - 72,000
News Channel - 40,000
Sky News Tonight - 37,000

[Brekkie]

You have to wonder had News UK TV had launched, how it would have compared to GB News.

We can say alot about the Murdochs but one thing is for sure is he wouldn't allow output like this to be put out. I still wouldn't be surprised if GB News ended up in his hands sooner rather than later.

[Ste]

Sky Digital was not without its problem when it launched back in 1998:
[snip]

The only actual problem mentioned was a viewing card / encryption issue not an issue with the production quality of the programming on any particular channel. The other issues mentioned are just that some FTA channels broadcast across Europe on 19.2E were initially unavailable on the UK focused 28.2E.

[Brekkie]

Would be fascinating to compare this launch week with the same for Sky News and BBC News 24. They of course launched to very few viewers and got to make mistakes in relative obscurity.

If GB News had launched on pay TV only initially, they probably would have been afforded the same time to iron out the problems, but because they've launched on every major platform as a free-to-view channel, there's a far bigger audience watching their mistakes.

I too have been thinking the same. Certainly Sky News probably would have experienced some issues with it being a wholly new operation. but given that only a small number of homes had dishes installed in the early bit of 1989 and the lack of Cable in most places, they would have got away with any issues for the most part.

Am I right in thinking that when BBC News 24 launched it actually was only viewable in BBC offices as digital boxes had not yet been made publicly available?

That is exactly what GB News clearly haven't done - you'd think with any news channel launching they would probably do at least an entire weeks run through off-air just to iron things out and ensure when they do go live they hit the ground running.

[Justin]

Would be fascinating to compare this launch week with the same for Sky News and BBC News 24. They of course launched to very few viewers and got to make mistakes in relative obscurity.

If GB News had launched on pay TV only initially, they probably would have been afforded the same time to iron out the problems, but because they've launched on every major platform as a free-to-view channel, there's a far bigger audience watching their mistakes.

I too have been thinking the same. Certainly Sky News probably would have experienced some issues with it being a wholly new operation. but given that only a small number of homes had dishes installed in the early bit of 1989 and the lack of Cable in most places, they would have got away with any issues for the most part.

Am I right in thinking that when BBC News 24 launched it actually was only viewable in BBC offices as digital boxes had not yet been made publicly available?

News 24 was available only on cable at launch.

[RegularCapital]

Would be fascinating to compare this launch week with the same for Sky News and BBC News 24. They of course launched to very few viewers and got to make mistakes in relative obscurity.

If GB News had launched on pay TV only initially, they probably would have been afforded the same time to iron out the problems, but because they've launched on every major platform as a free-to-view channel, there's a far bigger audience watching their mistakes.

I too have been thinking the same. Certainly Sky News probably would have experienced some issues with it being a wholly new operation. but given that only a small number of homes had dishes installed in the early bit of 1989 and the lack of Cable in most places, they would have got away with any issues for the most part.

Am I right in thinking that when BBC News 24 launched it actually was only viewable in BBC offices as digital boxes had not yet been made publicly available?

That is exactly what GB News clearly haven't done - you'd think with any news channel launching they would probably do at least an entire weeks run through off-air just to iron things out and ensure when they do go live they hit the ground running.

BBC News 24 launched on cable only at first.

[AJ]

Sky Digital was not without its problem when it launched back in 1998: {snip}

With respect, launching an entire new TV platform with associated equipment and subscription management is a very different kettle of fish to launching a single channel.

[matthieu1221]

A bit (lots) of whispering going on in the studio presumably while we get another cross to Stan(d)sted Airport.

Also seems like all mics are on when they do the 4 way box. Some loud street chatter so must've been from the pedestrian street on the top left box.

[Worzel]

A bit (lots) of whispering going on in the studio presumably while we get another cross to Stan(d)sted Airport.

Also seems like all mics are on when they do the 4 way box. Some loud street chatter so must've been from the pedestrian street on the top left box.

On day 1 they would all go to mute during the 4 way split so to only way to hear the reporter was to go full screen and the first part of the reporter would get chopped off. They changed that on day 2.

[thecorrector]

This live bug has been up for several minutes now:



The reporter is in Birmingham, 130 miles away.

[Justin]

The Nationwide reporters' videos are all juddering and jumping in the 4-way split and also quite a lot in the Cardiff and Bedfordshire reporter's shot. Something is wrong with how GBN is processing the video or with their IP link, all four reporters can't be in poor cell range.

Also quite amusing for the Bedfordshire reporter to be standing in front of what appears to be a lake and some shrubbery, just to repeat some news about a national story they found online.