Today, ProSiebenSat.1 launched finally a new and common news brand, well sort of… After launching a new in-house effort in January (which I covered here), finally the group’s newscasts were unified into the single Newstime moniker, now styled as :newstime. The changes were announced with little fanfare last week, but the new operation’s digital and social media channels have been named under the ProSieben news brand since the relaunch, hinting a sign of things to come.
“Where ‘:newstime’ is on it, ‘:newstime’ is in it. The brand will be an absolutely reliable source of information for people - up-to-date, fast and on all platforms,” Sven Pietsch, the editor-in-chief of Seven.One Entertainment Group, is certain. The aim is to establish the new brand “:newstime” as a "seal of quality for comprehensible and non-judgemental quality journalism in the German news landscape. “:newstime” will also become the brand on platforms such as YouTube or Instagram.
Although the brand was adopted in all newscasts, each channel retains its own editorial policy: ProSieben has been traditionally more tabloid in style due to its younger demographics, whilst Sat.1 has historically had a more serious tone, with more politics and social affairs, and Kabel 1 has taken the “news-you-can-use” route. However, the service has the same team of reporters and have many of the reports and stories covered in all editions, and plans to further unify resources coming soon.
Despite the same name, the news programmes are to be quite different. Arne Teetz, Editor-in-Chief News: "We are combining our strengths and competencies under the joint brand ‘:newstime’ and will continue to produce different programmes for Sat.1, ProSieben and Kabel Eins, tailored to the respective viewers’ interests, with our own presenters. In the future, however, we will go beyond this and, in combination with our digital distribution channels, will be able to offer an even more comprehensive and uniform journalistic service for everyone at all times.
The launch of the new brand (developed in-house by SevenOne Creative Solutions) is the second phase of the relaunch of the in-house newsroom. The logo and openers really have a Franceinfo feel to it, but the music is just too generic and production music-like. The ugly virtual set design is still there, but there is a new look to it which looks less outlandish to what they had before. Additionally, the normal channel DOGs are now being used during the bulletins.
A further launch phase will come by the end of this year, as a new real studio set is finally put in place, as well as a move to a permanent space in the new ProSiebenSat.1 Campus in Unterföhring, Munich.