Going live
Day four and things are settling down.
launched on ´óÏó´«Ã½ World on Monday, presented by George Alagiah from TV Centre in London. It's been the culmination of months of hard work.
Here are some things we hope the viewers have noticed (and some we hope they haven't...):
The things we hope you have...
• The range of ´óÏó´«Ã½ resources we can apply to a story. Yesterday, after , we reported live from Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing and Washington. Plus we found out what the North Koreans were being told via the in Berkshire (the answer by the way was nothing... North Koreans weren't told about it until Thursday morning).
• George bringing his personal authority to the programme - he's writing a large part of it, and conducting strong interviews with leading figures. Today we'll be speaking to the EU commissioner for Immigration, .
• A fresh new look, with a re-designed studio and graphics. We think these things matter... which is why the production team have put so much effort into getting it right.
...and those things we hope you haven't
• We've lost three interviews in four days. One prime minister cancelled at the last minute. One vice president changed his mind about staying for the time we'd booked him. One MEP sat patiently in a studio but couldn't hear a word we were saying... which would have made answering questions very difficult. We did eventually get her on air, but half an hour later than expected.
• We have only three minutes to reconfigure the studio at the end of the programme and before the next bulletin. This means moving four cameras around, changing the lighting, putting a new presenter on to a different set and rehearsing the headlines sequence. It's fair to say we've only just got away with it.
• It's been the hottest week of the year in London and the air conditioning has developed a leak. George Alagiah is currently sitting next to a large waste bin, which is catching the drips from above.
Thus far it's very early to be getting any feedback on the new programme. But if you're able to watch, please add your comments to this posting... or send me an email. I'd love to hear from you. Especially if you know how to fix leaks.
Comments
Saw a few minutes of this programme, it's awful in my opinion. It looks like it's presented from a badly lit cardboard box and you've brought in a 'big name' to jazz it up a bit by making him standing up and give stilted delievery.
´óÏó´«Ã½ World used to be good for the limited budget it has, now it's going down the pan with the rest.
I think Nerdboy is being a bit unfair. From what I've seen ´óÏó´«Ã½ World is actually getting much slicker - when it's up against international competition that's probably no bad thing.
I agree with Nerdboy, I cannot understand why you have used such a small, dark, studio, particularly when this programme is broadcast at 7am Eastern Time. Why not use the regular ´óÏó´«Ã½ World studio?
I also agree that if ´óÏó´«Ã½ World is to compete with other news channels, particularly in America, it needs to be given the resources to avoid some of the presentational errors (graphics appearing at the wrong time etc) which detract from its journalism.