> RealPlayer Stream (981kb)
> Quicktime Download in H.264! (5.2mb)
> RealPlayer Stream (273kb)
> Quicktime Download in H.264! (1.4mb)
Living in Prime-affiliate-country I haven’t had much of a chance to develop any sort of love and/or hate relationship for the Seven TV-mascot thing. The idents are well made and the TV man character is fairly endearing, but I guess anything is better then ‘bringing it home to me’. (Thanks Matt).
All networks in Australia, except the ABC broadcast Electronic Program Guides on Digital TV. For some reason SBS is the only network that broadcasts their EPG in Canberra, on my trip to Sydney however I managed to grab samples from the other three EPG’s.
SBS is my favourite of the bunch (check out their old EPG here). I don’t mind the Seven and Nine EPG’s and the Ten one looks good too but it so horribly out of date its embarrasing. They have icons promoting shows that aren’t on anymore, they have photos of Neighbours cast that have left the show, and I thought Australian Idol was over? Its as if Network Ten don’t realise their even broadcasting it.
> SBS EPG RealPlayer Stream (3.3mb)
> Seven EPG RealPlayer Stream (1.8mb)
> Nine EPG RealPlayer Stream (2.2mb)
> Ten EPG RealPlayer Stream (2.1mb)
Spent the night in Sydney on Thursday, didn’t record that much stuff, but did get the long version Network Ten promo and something from Seven.
I really want to like the Ten promo, but I just wish they hadn’t made 90% of it out of stock images and video, its particularly noticeable on the clips that aren’t in 16:9 (look for the one with the teens on the coach). Channel Seven is pretty ordinary, its better then the Prime stuff we get in Canberra, but the whole Gottaloveit thing almost makes ‘Still the One’ look good.
> RealPlayer Stream (2.5mb)
> Quicktime MPEG4 Download (9.8mb)
> RealPlayer Stream (686kb)
> Quicktime MPEG4 Download (2.9mb)
The networks all have their own take on how to present weather, SBS do the whole world in a minute while Nine barely get past the suburbs of Sydney on their ‘National’ broadcast. ABC seem to take the longest, with a weather report that can at times top three minutes. Ten and Seven insist on sending out weather people to locations around town, Tim Bailey on Ten is far more annoying then Seven’s Nuala Hafner though.
From a design perspective ABC and SBS are at the top of my list. Ten is by far the worst with its depressing little sunshine icons. Nine waste too much time with scroll bars at the bottom of the screen and moving the map around from left to right, and Seven’s map looks OK, but is a bit cartoony.
> RealPlayer Stream (2mb)
> RealPlayer Stream (3.8mb)
> RealPlayer Stream (2.7mb)
> RealPlayer Stream (2.7mb)
> RealPlayer Stream (1.8mb)
I was recording Prime tonight, and as I flicked through the ads I noticed this promo for “Crime Prime Time Wednesday” that looked amazingly similar to a crime promo I saw while I was in the UK for Channel Five.
I hadn’t recorded a copy while I was in London but I did find footage online at The TV Room. If you compare the two you quickly realise they use the exact same footage. I’m going to assume Channel Five created the footage originally, it’s just weird that they would sell it to another network to use, well that or Seven stole it.
> RealPlayer Stream: Prime Promo (1.7mb)
> RealPlayer Stream: Five Promo (900kb) (Via TV Room)
> RealPlayer Stream (600kb)
Because I live in “regional Australia”, as I’ve mentioned before I don’t get the real broadcasts of the commercial stations. For Nine, I get Win, for Ten, I get Southern Cross, and for Seven, I get Prime.
This ident comes from Prime, the broadcaster that is “bringing it home to me”. I’m not a big fan of purely computer generated idents, I tend to prefer the BBC1’s of the ident world.
> RealPlayer Stream (332kb)
> Quicktime MPEG4 Download (1.8mb)
On a rather eventful trip to Sydney I managed to grab this Channel 7 ident. It was the first time I’d actually seen the non-regional idents (as I live in Canberra) for 7 and although I’m not a fan of idents just being cross promotion for other shows, 7 do a pretty good job gluing together stock footage into something cool (if not very short).
Opening sequences for news broadcasts of the three commercial networks in Australia.
> RealPlayer Stream (764kb)
> Quicktime MPEG4 Download (4.3mb)
Anchor: Mark Ferguson
Time: 6pm Weeknights (or 6.30pm in some parts)
> RealPlayer Stream (1.1mb)
> Quicktime MPEG4 Download (6.5mb)
Anchor: Ian Ross (ex Channel Nine anchor)
Time: 6pm Weeknights
> RealPlayer Stream (930kb)
> Quicktime MPEG4 Download (5.1mb)
Anchors: Jessica Rowe and Ron Wilson
Time: “First at Five”
Here are some stills showing the set and some of the design used in Seven News broadcasts. I like the transparency used in the news bar on the bottom of the screen too. The image behind the anchor of the control room isn’t that exciting though.
Click on image to enlarge. (You will be taken to Flickr. to view)