Breakfast to go
Our video podcast, the is one week old today.
We launched it last week, boasting that it was "the first early morning news video podcast in the country". Not a particularly snappy boast admittedly, but it's something we're very proud of.
It's new technology and it's very exciting. It's not complicated to download, but it is quite complicted to promote.
There are all sorts of issues. Universality is one. How many people have a video ipod or MP4 player? We're trailing a product that (strictly speaking) is only available to people with that technology (I've been watching it on my home computer). Is that right?
Well, I'd argue that the same was true of digital television when I used to work at ´óÏó´«Ã½ News 24 a few years ago. Nowadays, the majority of the country gets digital TV and thanks to the fact that it launched when it did, News 24 is now well established, very polished and hugely attractive to those digital "late adopters".
Is it free? We had a few people e-mail us, on day one, to say it was wrong to say we were providing it for "free". Fair enough. We now say "free to download".
Do people actually want it? I'm not aware of anyone questioning the value of the video podcast yet, which is heartening. Unlike the , and vodcasts, which are in the 'best of' category, ours is supposed to be a bit different. To use a cliché, it's "news you can use". It's around 10 minutes of news and information with a very limited shelf life. It'll probably be out of date by mid-morning, but it might be handy for your morning commute.
Thus far, the signs of take up are encouraging. At the end of its first week it was at number three in the iTunes news and politics 'league table'.
We hope to go higher and this is likely to cause me some local difficulty with my peers at the Ten and Newsnight. You see, they're very proud of their (excellent) vodcast offerings and I suspect our arrival on the scene has been greeted with some nervousness. Because of the disposable nature of our Breakfast Takeaway, I think we're catering for a different market. However, it's a sign of the power of the medium that we're all so eager to have a slice of the action.
I'd be very interested to know what people of think of it.
Comments
As one who has pretty much stopped watching Breakfast because of its inane two-ways on whatever "soft" thing it does that day - oh look, Breakfastssarahcampbell (sic) is in a school *yet again* drivelling on about Jamie flipping Oliver, or a hospital *yet again*, or Declan's in a supermarket *yet again* wittering on about packaging (is Declan supposed to be a business reporter? Then maybe he should report on BUSINESS a bit more rather than being a glorified consumer affairs presenter), or worst of all those effing police dogs, I have no intention of ever downloading your trite programme.
I have to admit to downloading all three of these podcasts but probably enjoy the Breakfast Takeaway the best. It's just a shame that the picture quality is so poor. It isn't that great on the iPod screen and I have no idea how Mr Kermode can view the picture on his computer... The bitrate is just too low. It would be nice to add business news and weather to the morning podcast and perhaps an enhanced version. So that if you are viewing the programme on your computer you can link to stories and third party websites.
As for News 24 being 'polished'... Hmmm. I think a lot more works needs to go into that channel.
Totally agree with Neil. Breakfast has lost it's way. To much vox pop, too much begging for viewer reaction, too little hard news. By the way, how 'complicted ' is it to use a spell checker?
I think Richard Morris has hit the nail on the head. Breakfast has been slipping steadily downhill towards a tabloid level. The toddler that bought a car on eBay with 'just one click' will have had thousands of people who've actually used eBay realising that the story is patently untrue or at best true only from a contrived point of view (yes, one click after a specific set of actions).
A victory of sensationalism over journalism.
I agree with all the comments posted to date .Breakfast is the most inane program on the TV at the moment. Let us have some worthwhile news. You are letting the program slip into the realms of sensationalism. You show too many pop type items. I dont want to here what Jason D. or Tom Jones is doing at present. If I did I would find out elsewhere. If your presenters are journalists let us see some good journalism.
Breakfast is rapidly becoming trash TV and needs to relocate lock stock and barrel over to ITV. I expect intelligent news and discussion from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ with which to start the day, not (as today) the pointless glorification of some woman who's spent hundreds of pounds on snake oil potions and cosmetic surgery in an effort to look ten years younger, or someone who's lost a load of weight on the latest fad diet. Leave them for Richard & Judy - I don't want to see them (other than as part of a considered discussion of the beauty and diet industries), and I know many other ´óÏó´«Ã½ viewers feel the same.
This is not news, it's the same shallow, vacuous, tabloid fluff which we are all expected to value in other media outlets, and a disease which seems to be infecting most of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ recently. It's reaching the point where I'm paying my license fee for this website and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four (the last shameful bastion of anything remotely intelligent on the ´óÏó´«Ã½) and not a lot else. I'm sure that nowhere in your charter does it insist the Corporation slavishly follow their dumbed-down commercial rivals in terms of production values. But then, the prominence (and funding) given to EastEnders says much to me about the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s true target audience these days.