Sky News: Breaking News you won't see....

DMC

They've scrapped James Rubin's World News Tonight, according to Media Guardian.

On top of that, Ginny Buckley and Juliette Foster are sacked, and David Chater, (he being their man in Baghdad when the US marched in the city) has left of his own accord.

More to come.

flogen

I wonder if Sky News Ireland will be cut/dropped?

DMC

Looks like it stays, but not confirmed here anyway...

Points of note, programmes with 3 newscasters reduced back to a sane 2, Martin Stanford back weekdays, and the Sky Report is an ex-programme.

New schedule from Media Guardian...

6-9am: Sunrise, Eamonn Holmes and Lorna Dunkley
9am-12pm: Sky News Today, Chris Roberts and Anna Jones
12-2pm: Lunchtime Live, Kay Burley
2-5pm: Sky News Today, Mark Longhurst and Julie Etchingham
5-6pm: Live at Five, Jeremy Thompson
6-8pm: Sky News, Jeremy Thompson and Anna Botting
8-10pm: To be announced, Martin Stanford
10-10.30pm: News at 10, Martin Stanford and Gillian Joseph
10.30-11pm: Sportsline, Jon Desborough
11pm-12am: Sky News Tonight, Martin Stanford and Gillian Joseph


7.15pm
Sky drops Rubin's news show

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1792436,00.html

John Plunkett
Wednesday June 7, 2006

Sky News has axed James Rubin's struggling World News Tonight programme in a bid to regain some of the momentum lost by the news channel's ineffective relaunch.

Rubin's weeknight international news show has been dropped, as has another early evening programme introduced in the October relaunch, The Sky Report with Julie Etchingham.

The new schedule announced today marks a U-turn on last autumn's relaunch, which was intended to introduce more "appointment to view" programmes with big-name presenters such as Rubin, a former adviser to President Clinton.

Seventeen Sky News staff are being axed, including presenters Ginny Buckley and Juliette Foster, and correspondent Richard Bestic.

Both Rubin and Etchingham will remain with Sky.

Etchingham, seen as one of Sky News's brightest talents, returns to a daytime slot co-presenting Sky News Today between 2pm and 5pm with Mark Longhurst.

The new schedule will begin on July 10.

Rubin will be rather less high-profile, working as a commentator and analyst and presenting a series of "special programmes on international affairs" across Sky News.

The head of Sky News, Nick Pollard - who will be leaving the channel in September having resigned in May - said: "The journalists on both World News Tonight and The Sky Report have worked incredibly hard to produce some outstanding and original journalism.

"One of the aims of the schedule change is to integrate some of the strengths within our general programming, rather than focusing that effort solely on two specific peak time shows."

Rubin's World News Tonight struggled to recover from a disastrous start, when the audience for its second outing last October fell to just 1,000 viewers.

Other people leaving Sky News as a result of today's cuts are said to include political correspondent Jenny Percival, reporters Nicola Hill and Eve Richings, and newsdesk staff Jane Elston and Vince McGarry. Veteran Sky correspondent David Chater resigned last week.

In a statement, Sky said 17 members of staff would be "leaving the company as part of Sky News's continuing drive to operate a highly efficient and effective organisation".

Dawn Airey, the managing director of Sky's channels and services, said: "Like any good news broadcaster, our goal is to continuously innovate and improve our news service, Sky's determination to be the best 24 hour news service is as strong as ever."

icdg

Rubin simply had to go. World News Tonight was a great idea - and quite high-brow for Sky News - but Rubin simply could not present.

As for the Sky Report, seemed rather the opposite - too sensationalist for me, seemed .

Martin Stanford goes back to prime time - well he was being rather wasted on Saturday mornings - wonder what happens to Saturday Live now though?

And if Anna Botting is doing 6pm-8pm with Thompson...why isn't she doing 5pm-6pm too. Bring Live at Five back to its old dual-headed format, it worked for the fifteen years before the relaunch...

As for SNI, I would imagine SNI at 6:30 will revert to 7pm.

L1011

SNI is a bit like Sky News itself - loss-leader for the Sky brand. Even with its (atrocious) viewing figures, I can't see it ever going in totality.

mike65

James Rubin stopped me watching what could have been an interesting programme. Martin Stanford is much better.

Mike.

flogen

MYOB wrote:

SNI is a bit like Sky News itself - loss-leader for the Sky brand. Even with its (atrocious) viewing figures, I can't see it ever going in totality.

I think SNI would stand a much higher chance of success if they just bit the bullet and made it a 24 Hour channel, rather than a half hour bulletin; their tactics so far have shown little common sense with the venture, like putting it on Sky One... talk about desperate!

L1011

True. They're already using two streams (and another 1/4 screen for a 24/5 SNI loop), and they could reuse the BBC News24 EPG # for the Sky News UK channel.

It might also stop RTÉs quixiotic idea of launching their own 24 hour one for DTT (although if we're lucky thats been shelved already)

DMC

Full Sky News press release....

STATEMENT ON SKY NEWS SCHEDULE CHANGES
Issued: June 7, 2006

Sky News is focusing its resources and making a number of changes to its evening schedule.


The new schedule will be:

1700-1800	Live at Five	Jeremy Thompson

1800-2000	Sky News  	Jeremy Thompson and Anna Botting

2000-2200	To be announced	Martin Stanford

2200-2230	News at Ten	Martin Stanford and Gillian Joseph

2230-2300	Sportsline	Jon Desborough

2300-0000	Sky NewsTonight	Martin Stanford and Gillian Joseph

The rest of the day will be as follows:

0600-0900	Sunrise		Eamonn Holmes and Lorna Dunkley

0900-1200	Sky News Today	Chris Roberts and Anna Jones

1200-1400	Lunchtime Live	Kay Burley

1400-1700	Sky News Today	Mark Longhurst and Julie Etchingham   

The new line-up will go live on Monday, 10 July, 2006.

With these schedule changes seventeen members of staff will be leaving the company as part of Sky News' continuing drive to operate a highly efficient and effective organisation.

Dawn Airey, Managing Director, Channels and Services, said: “Sky News is known for fast, accurate journalism that sets the benchmark for our competitors, just as we were first with the news of last week's police raids against suspected terrorists in London, the Thames Whale and the Norman Kember release.

Like any good news broadcaster, our goal is to continuously innovate and improve our news service, Sky's determination to be the best 24 hour news service is as strong as ever“

Nick Pollard, Head of Sky News, said: “The journalists on both World News Tonight and The Sky Report have worked incredibly hard to produce some outstanding and original journalism. One of the aims of the schedule change is to integrate some of the strengths within our general programming, rather than focussing that effort solely on to two specific peak time shows.”

----

Notes to the editor:
- James Rubin, presenter of World News Tonight, will continue to serve as a presenter of a series of special programmes on international affairs across Sky News, as well as expanding his role as a commentator and analyst, when the World News Tonight, and The Sky Report, cease.

- A new show will be developed for the 8pm slot will be news-driven and interactive, presented by Martin Stanford

flogen

MYOB wrote:

True. They're already using two streams (and another 1/4 screen for a 24/5 SNI loop), and they could reuse the BBC News24 EPG # for the Sky News UK channel.

It might also stop RTÉs quixiotic idea of launching their own 24 hour one for DTT (although if we're lucky thats been shelved already)

Well that was shelved after their DTT plan collapsed, I'd say it will be an idea thrown around, but one they'll have a hard time justifying (especially if it involves a licence fee rise, which I think will come with any move in HD or DTT)

As far as I'm concerned someone is going to eventually launch an Irish 24 Hour news channel, for good or bad, and if that succeeds and gets enough viewers to stay afloat there won't be enough room for a competitor in this market, so Sky should pump the money in, test the waters and if it fails, go back to square 1 (just showing the UK SN), if it succeeds they'll have the market to themselves (of course, RTE don't go for viewer numbers, or so they tell us).

I mean, when you consider the fact that Sky News is successful because it's a 24 hour news service, SNI makes no sense; Sky News offered viewers something new, rolling news, and it still offers rolling news too, so while you used to have to wait for ITV and the BBC's set bulletins, Sky would have covered an issue 10 times over... in Ireland Sky has one half hour of news a day, the only channel that has less than that is Channel 6 ffs!

bk

Would it really cost so much more for RTE to run a 24 hour news service?

Get the current presenters to run longer. Bring in 3 or 4 new presenters to run one person shows at off peak time, using fixed position, operator less cameras.

It seems to me that RTE already seem to have a large news staff, I would have thought that it isn't much smaller then Sky.

Currently they have a news show at 1:00, 6:00, 7:00*, 9:00, 10:50, 12:15

* Nationwide which is sort of news.

Another option would be to get the normal staff to film a 15 minute piece and just replay it every 15 minutes, until the next major section. Or also partner with another network like Euronews or ITN and show some of their material (which they already do with Euronews).

Or they could have it as a News, Current Affairs and docs channel. Put in extended additions of Questions and Answers, Prime Time, etc. Put some repeats of RTE docs. Obviously stick in more Oireachtas coverage. Maybe even televise some of the more popular daytime RTE Radio 1 shows, with news highlight inserts.

They could certainly do it if they wanted to and it would make sense as a protection against SNI. RTE's current affairs shows some to have improved recently and seem to be getting very good ratings. This would build on that and it would be important for RTE on the coming DTT service.

In fact if I was RTE I'd be looking at also making a DTT kids channel, Music and Sports to try and block the competition from the UK channels on DTT.

flogen

bk wrote:

Or they could have it as a News, Current Affairs and docs channel. Put in extended additions of Questions and Answers, Prime Time, etc. Put some repeats of RTE docs. Obviously stick in more Oireachtas coverage. Maybe even televise some of the more popular daytime RTE Radio 1 shows, with news highlight inserts.

They could certainly do it if they wanted to and it would make sense as a protection against SNI. RTE's current affairs shows some to have improved recently and seem to be getting very good ratings. This would build on that and it would be important for RTE on the coming DTT service.

In fact if I was RTE I'd be looking at also making a DTT kids channel, Music and Sports to try and block the competition from the UK channels on DTT.

tbh I don't think it would be that expensive but it would be an expense all the same; your above suggestion seems the most likely to me; if they created a news/current affairs station that replayed the weeks Prime Time/QandA etc. as well as extended Oireachtas coverage, having half hour breaks of news with 1 hour + at prime times like 1, 6, 9 etc. it could certainly work; obviously if they did do this I'd hope they'd create some more unique programming too, not just RTE 1 repeats.
IMO an RTÉ Oireachtas channel is a dead cert one way or another, the proceedings are filmed anyway (in very good quality too), so it's only a matter of picking up the feed and broadcasting it (maybe some extra analysis shows to cover nighttime slots)
I wouldn't be shocked if RTÉ made a news channel either, and linking with Euronews or a US network for times like 2AM-7/8AM wouldn't be a bad idea either, it's kind of common tbh.

Kids channel, yes, sports... hmmm... not sure if that's viable (Ireland having 2 sports channels, possibly both on DTT?!!), and music, not a chance; that's a commercial venture and RTÉ would have a very hard time justifying it, at most we'll get an RTÉ Three type channel that is more youth orientated and as such features more music programming like Other Voices and so on.

Anyway, this is all OT!

L1011

Well, they wanted a -seperate- Oireachtas channel, but as it stands, the state would be willing to pick up the tab for decent Dáil coverage alone.

RTÉ have some (minor) history of working with Sky News to fill in time in the past, so possibly either going to SN or repeated Dáil or Seanad coverage overnight would stop the costs of hiring night presenters, extra techs, and so on.

aphex™

Anybody remember IrelandLiveTelevision.TV? I'm pretty sure they had a presenter on 24 hours a day and Oireachtas coverage.

It only shut down a few months ago.

Too bad it never got picked up by NTL Digital. But it was doomed from the start, sure look at the stupid URL.

Ntl probably didn't know about it and i've a feeling the station management never tried to get it on digital.

bk

flogen wrote:

Kids channel, yes, sports... hmmm... not sure if that's viable (Ireland having 2 sports channels, possibly both on DTT?!!), and music, not a chance

Yeah, Sports is a bit of a stretch, I was thinking they could do something like a partnership with Eurosport, have extended RTE sports shows, with Eurosport shows for the other times. But it does seem unlikely.

Again for a Music channel I was thinking they could televise some RTE Radio/2FM shows and also have some music shows with young (cheap) presenters. It would be viable, yes it might be commercial, but I don't see what the problem with that would be, at least it would employ some Irish people and have a more Irish slant then just transmitting a UK music channel here. Maybe RTE could do it as a self financing entity.

L1011

aphex&#8482 wrote:

Anybody remember IrelandLiveTelevision.TV? I'm pretty sure they had a presenter on 24 hours a day and Oireachtas coverage.

It only shut down a few months ago.

Too bad it never got picked up by NTL Digital. But it was doomed from the start, sure look at the stupid URL.

Ntl probably didn't know about it and i've a feeling the station management never tried to get it on digital.

I was gonna mention that it did, but considering I posted a thread ~5 days ago asking what had happened to it, I thought it'd look a bit obsessive

watty

There are TWO Oireachtas channels. They just don't go anywhere as there is no DTT!

RTE News24 will happen.

A DTT part time Kids channel might happen (CITV, CBBC, Cbeebies are only about 12 hr a day).

Setanta will almost definately have 4 to 6 pay TV sports channels on DTT. So unlikely to be an RTE one.

I can't see an Irish DTT Music channel. Unless UTV run it.

L1011

watty wrote:

There are TWO Oireachtas channels. They just don't go anywhere as there is no DTT!

That I knew about (one Dáil, one Seanad, they're sent as IPTV to whoever in the govt. needs them), theres also a dedicated feed of the Dáil to, of all people, UTV! You ever seen Dáil coverage on UTV Live, because I haven't....

flogen

watty wrote:

I can't see an Irish DTT Music channel. Unless UTV run it.

Channel 6 are said to be talking to the BCI about one, I assume they'll be (well, regular C6 at least) put on DTT.. also BubbleHits might get a DTT licence, I know it's due to broadcast under an Ofcom licence in the UK, but that could change (like Channel 6)

As for the Oirechtas channel, it might happen like in the UK where BBC took control over what was The Parliament Channel; RTÉ could do the same for the Oireachtas broadcasts and put them on DTT; it could include some RTÉ programming, like review shows etc.

bk

watty wrote:

A DTT part time Kids channel might happen (CITV, CBBC, Cbeebies are only about 12 hr a day).

Isn't there already a Den TV on NTL? I assume it is just exactly what is currently on RTE 2.

flogen

bk wrote:

Isn't there already a Den TV on NTL? I assume it is just exactly what is currently on RTE 2.

Yeah, it's basically the DEN TV shown on RTE2, but I guess it shows just how likely an RTE Kids channel is, DEN TV takes up a huge chunk of RTE2's schedule, it goes from first in the morning until around 5 or 6 (I think), they could just keep doing what they're doing, add another hour maybe to the end and then cut back the kids tv on RTE2 once the number of people with DTT is high enough.

L1011

I'd expect them to do it -before- DTT takeup is high just so that people will switch due to angry, angry kids shouting at them. Perfect marketing stance

MTV would likely be interested in getting TMF onto DTT here - it has an Irish version, and its their "free" channel, meant to be a tempter to get the rest of them on Sky/Cable.

medja

aphex&#8482 wrote:

Anybody remember IrelandLiveTelevision.TV? I'm pretty sure they had a presenter on 24 hours a day and Oireachtas coverage.

It only shut down a few months ago.

Too bad it never got picked up by NTL Digital. But it was doomed from the start, sure look at the stupid URL.

Ntl probably didn't know about it and i've a feeling the station management never tried to get it on digital.

Ireland live Televison was live maybe 15 minutes in a day. Someone read some INN copy, they had no pictures and their ads were 4 years old. For example they were still running the welcome to O2 ad when they changed their name from Esat digifone!

The weekends had no news at all, Just a review of the week. that's 1 hour 15 minutes of someone reading out old headlines on a loop.

It was possibly one of the most embrassing efforts from this island (and that's saying a lot.) :mad: