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BBC One Videos: Idents

The Morning Show’s war on Nine and Ten.


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BBC One launched two new idents over the weekend. This is the first of them, with a space exploration theme, the standard remains very high, and while they’re probably not my favourite you can’t deny the quality of production.

View all of the new BBC One idents here.

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ABC1 Web Misc

Sneaking a peek at the new ABC News online.

Back in January I was sent a screenshot of the new abc.net.au/news, and while it was very much still a draft, it gave us some idea of what was coming.

The relaunched site is due to go live tomorrow, and from what I’ve seen its damn good. As you can see from the before and afters above, it is a much needed leap forward and has the most elegant and useful integration of video and audio I have seen on a news site. With simple audio and video flash players that appear and disappear thanks to the magic of ajax, it has Google Maps built right into the articles, which I immediately thought would be useless, until I realised how geographically challeneged I was and actually had no idea where Caloundra was (turns out its in Queensland).

The weather page is a brilliant, and even in fullscreen all the videos are more then enough, they load without any of the buffering that comes with the inconvenient WindowsMedia and RealPlayer formats that most news sites still use.

There is tons more to explore of the new site, but the incredibly simple and useful execution of audio/video and maps really are the top story of this news relaunch.

More screenshots below.. or visit abc.net.au/news sometime Monday.

Categories
Nine Network Videos: TV

The end of Alan Jones (on Today).


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Alan Jones delivered his final editorial on the Today Show last Friday. I’m surprised he lasted this long, but I’m also surprised about a lot of things that happen at Nine.

Bask in his final words in the video above. Unfortunately he’s not going away for good though, with new videos starting soon on 2GB’s website. I really have no time for Alan Jones, but he’s always fun to laugh at. (Thanks for the video Naomi).

Categories
ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War

The Chaser on the machinations of Today Tonight.

Update: Check out the Chaser’s lastest run in with Today Tonight here.

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This weeks lesson: Stories about The Chaser

Today Tonight had their say earlier this evening about their encounter with The Chaser. Now, of course, its The Chaser’s turn with the latest ‘What have we learnt from current affairs this week?’.

They take a look at the humour current affairs show use, Anna’s snide at those “who think their funny” and of course “double crossing” TT reporter James Thomas (who is apparently quite a good guy, just in the wrong job). With the inclusion of a lot more Peter Meakin references than made it into the Today Tonight piece.

If you missed tonights show, its repeated on ABC2 a few times, or you can just download it here.

Categories
ABC1 Web Misc

The new abc.net.au/tv launches.

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The folks behind ABC Online have been busy. A new ABC News site is due to go live any day now, and as of this morning there is a new ABC television portal.

With an emphasis on video (in user friendly full screen flash), and more full episode downloads including The Einstein Factor and The New Inventors, the ABC is taking some positive steps towards the promise of TV 2.0. The site encourages you to watch previews of upcoming shows and participate in a newly opened forum.

Check it all out for yourself right here.

Categories
Seven Network Videos: Chaser's War

The Chaser “often funny” says Today Tonight.

Update: Check out the Chaser’s lastest run in with Today Tonight here.

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Update: Watch the Today Tonight story in full here.

Update 2: Watch the The Chaser story in full here.

First it was A Current Affair with their puff piece about The Chaser’s War on Everything. Now, it looks like Today Tonight are about to get nasty. The video is a teaser for tomorrow nights story exposing what Anna Coren calls The Chaser’s “fake street cred”.

Today Tonight asked The Chaser if they could shoot a story by coming along with them for a stunt. However, when everything didn’t go how the TT reporter James Thomas hoped for, it would appear they’ve decided to take this angle for the story.

I will post the story in full here after it airs tomorrow night, along with what The Chaser have to say about it on their show too.

Categories
S4/C (Welsh) Videos: Idents

S4/C’s Infinite Loop.

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What do you get when there’s a break in the schedule of television early in the morning? Infomercials? Test patterns?.. Not if you live in Wales. This loop, created for S4/C by Proud fills those gaps with a serene and mesmerising flow of five lines.

Its the kind of thing you’d expect to see projected on the wall in a big dark room at Georges Pompidou, not on early morning television in Wales. In fact, if it wasn’t on TV, we’d probably all call it art.. which it is, just like S4/C’s stunning idents collection.

Categories
Channel 4 Videos: Idents

Channel 4 and 20 Questions… interrupted.

Download the whole H264 bunch in one swoop here (56.3mb *.zip).

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Channel 4 relaunched five of their 20 questions idents last week. I say “relaunched” because they mix original footage from the idents, with set-ups done with various celebrities.

As for whats in the videos above, here’s a bit of a rundown:

1 – Dermot O’Leary telling us about his first car.. just as something happens to it.

2 – David Threlfall struggling to answer the question ‘what would change if you could start over again’.

3 – Alan Carr on the plight of the third world.

4 – Justin Lee Collins and a burning house.

5 – Alan Dale and an Australian fan.

6 – Russell Brand getting hit by a comet.

7 – Charlotte Church is a robot!

I’ll add any more of the ..interrupted idents here if I can get them. But for now check out the rest of the “normal” versions here.

Categories
ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War Videos: Promos

First Tuesday Porno Club

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Jennifer Byrne talking porn with Richard E Grant and the gang from The First Tuesday Book Club. I’m all for the analysis of popular culture, and mainstream texts, I guess I just thought television would be ahead in line to pornography.

This is the kind of Chaser stuff I love, and while I doubt we’ll be seeing this show on the ABC anytime soon, I think any accessible critical discussion about media or culture, be it literature, television or porn, is a good thing.

Download the whole episode from the official vodcast or just get it off me.

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BBC Four Videos: Broadcast News Videos: Openings

Find out why The World is no more.

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Late last month, the only news program in the UK to focus solely on international news got a shake up. It went from being The World, in the first video, to World News Today in the second video, and is now hosted by Zeinab Badawi. The show is described as:

unashamedly serious; but that doesn’t mean it’s not engaging or stimulating.

And it probably fits in very well on BBC Four where it airs. Why the change you ask? Well you can read all about why from the BBC itself which blogged about the changes here, in a brilliant example of openness, that kept the viewer in the loop for once.

Not getting BBC Four, or living in the UK, I haven’t seen either shows, all I can say though… is I’m glad they kept the wood flooring.