Wow. Amazing and utterly fascinating. Reminds me a little of the Czech TV crisis 23 years ago (which also took place over Christmas!) - but in that case, new management supported the then-government and wanted to replace existing journalists with their own people.
The journalists occupied the newsroom over Christmas and continued to produce their broadcasts, which were jammed by management, who replaced them with their own bulletins of… questionable production values:
Ahhh, the Bobovize days!
One of the most bizarre periods in television I’ve ever seen.
You can see Jana Bobošíková pacing behind the newsreader during one of her Bobovize bulletins (and featured an interviewed during the program).
Greece also had it’s public television broadcaster shut down in 2013.
At 17:45 on 11 June 2013 , the Greek spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, announced Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) would close by the end of the day. The shutdown caused the loss of 2,500 employees.
The Greek government proposed a successor organisation, New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) which launched in August 2013.
In April 2015, the Hellenic Parliament approved the of reopening ERT, which started broadcasting again as of 11 June 2015.
And the situation on TVP has taken an unexpected turn to end the crisis: the Tusk government is quickly working to declare TVP, plus Polskie Radio, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) and other state and government media companies into bankruptcy and eventual liquidation, after President Andrzej Duda (from PiS) vetoed a government bill to increase funding to the public media system, promptly halting state support to the broadcaster, and boycotted the takeover of the state companies as causing “anarchy”, with Duda asking Tusk to duly “adhere to the legal order”.
Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz stated that the liquidation process “would allow them to continue operating while restructuring took place”, whilst also remarking that “the companies could be taken out of liquidation at any time by their owner”. No additional layoffs are expected. Additionally, TVP announced that it wouldn’t fine any advertiser and/or ask them to make any penalty or compensation payment, as commercial breaks were heavily disrupted to various degrees, with little to no ads during the height of the crisis.
Shortly after the announcement, Donald Tusk summoned the press and told them the halted budget will be redirected to help oncologic pediatric funds; additional to that, he said that his government would restore TVP’s finances “the way it could be done”, as reports have emerged on misfinances done by the PiS management on the broadcaster, including high pay loads and bonuses for “propaganda” staff and a series of bank loans to cover up losses.
Other human rights and free press organizations had a mixed response to the takeover of TVP: the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights celebrated the need to reform public media, but criticised the way the government carried out such a dramatic move within hours. The National Media Council, in the other hand, issued support for the PiS sit-in and described the takeover an “attack”. Worth noting the NMC was created by PiS during the Morawiecki government, and is controlled by a PiS majority. The International Federation of Journalists and the European Federation of Journalists, in its way, condemned the intervention of both Tusk’s coalition and PiS in the takeover situation.
Further developments have happened since then, with the situation being increasingly escalating since Christmas Eve: with the sit-in continuing since the initial takeover stage, on December 24 (Wigilia in the Polish tradition), protesters celebrated in the traditional manner in front of TVP buildings nationwide; the occupied Powstańców Warszawy Square building (which housed the news service) being also visited by a priest.
That same day, Mateusz Matyszkowicz, the CEO of TVP during the final PiS years, resigned from his position, while the PiS supervisory board appointed Maciej Łopiński as the company’s new CEO; however, Piotr Zemła, the newly appointed head, stated the supervisory board did not appoint Łopiński, clarifying that Tomasz Sygut remained the only current CEO of TVP.
The situation escalated during the evening of Boxing Day, with the National Media Council appointing Michał Adamczyk (former Wiadomości and TVP Info anchor and CEO of the news division during the latter PiS years) as the CEO of TVP, with him issued a statement in which he characterized the actions of the Tusk government as being “illegal” and causing “huge damage”, and promised to “restore legal and corporate order as soon as possible, and punish those responsible for breaking the law, and resume the operation of all broadcasters”. He and other individuals were also continuing their sit-in inside the Powstańców Warszawy Square newsroom. Worse, Adamczyk’s appointment (and Łopiński’s decision to stick) has led to TVP having, as of now, three CEOs with each one disputing the post and declaring themselves the legitimate CEO.
Back to the National Media Council, its president Maciej Świrski drew attention to the decision to remove politically-sensitive programming from its TVP VOD service. Świrski “denounced” what he described as the “destruction” of TVP’s archives, emphasizing the removal of two documentaries, Reset (a controversial 16-part documentary on the normalisation of Polish-Russian foreign relations) and Resortowe dzieci (Children of the Ministry, which uncovered supposed “secret” relations between officials of the People’s Republic with the Wałęsa government). Świrski also pointed out the removal of various films and concerts pertaining to folk culture from TVP VOD, including concerts involving pro-PiS musician and folk culture historian Jacek Kowalski, produced by TVP’s Poznań studio. Świrski also asked the authors of any removed material to contact the NMC to pressure TVP to reinstate the material.
On Boxing Day (yesterday), TVP3 returned to the air at 10:00, but with a fully-national schedule without news programmes, instead, the schedule is airing a Christmas-themed schedule with concerts, family films and documentaries. Regional programming has reportedly continued to be produced, with some regions publishing the material on the regional centres’ social media channels.
Back to the developments on the rebuilding of the news service, TVP is rehiring Maciej Orłoś and Danuta Dobrzyńska to lead the human-interest news show Teleexpress. Orłoś was the main presenter of the early evening magazine until his resignation in connection to the PiS takeover; Dobrzyńska, alongside a tenure on Teleexpress, also presented Panorama and programmes on TVP Info.
In an interview with 19.30, the Tusk-appointed CEO Tomasz Sygut was the centre of a conversation on his plans for the “new TVP”. Alongside reaffirming the new news programming plans, he also announced an inquiry to investigate how money was used during the PiS era, with a first draft already on the works.
The new TVP Info is back on air, with new supers and a water-based opening for generic newscasts:
Before all that, Digi24 in Romania has a new look and set, with more shades of purple and focused on the box icon. This article detailed their changes.
The set is designed by London-based Kemistry, who previously worked with them back in 2012. In their own words:
And the moment of the rebrand.
Coverage of yesterday’s M7.6 earthquake in Japan:
In the middle of the situation in Japan, the demise of one of the first satellite TV channels which arrived in Europe in the 1990s. Deutsche Welle closed its German TV service on New Year’s Day.
The move was announced in March, when DW Director General Peter Limbourg announced it would cease broadcasting the German TV channel, due to its small global viewership (Limbourg estimated around 250k viewers regularly), budget cuts and a focus on targeting audiences in regions where access to independent news is severely restricted. Therefore, DW is focusing on targeting these regions, but also switching to digital-first content provision, emphasizing its DW.com website and its social and mobile offerings (which were recently relaunched with a new design and interface) and reducing infrastructure and broadcasting equipment costs. DW would also continue to produce its German-language talk shows and discussion programmes, plus documentaries and lifestyle programming.
Then, in September, DW announced the two-fold strategy to wind up the German feeds it operated. First, DW Deutsch (DW-TV Asia+), which operated a 24-hour schedule in German for Asia Pacific viewers (which offered not only programming produced by DW, also offering selected shows from ARD and ZDF, including a simulcast of the Eurovision Grand Final every year), was merged with the DW Deutsch+ feed (serving the Americas, with four hours of selected English DW News programming inserted within the all-German schedule) with immediate effect that month. Then came the outright closure of the German TV feed.
DW plans to retain the DW News channel in the mid-term, plus the Arabic and Spanish/Latin American channels. However, DW corporate management has not ruled out any further channel closures.
Here’s how the service closed down
Staying in Germany, ARD-Mittagmagazin, ARD’s lunchtime newsmagazine, is to be rebranded as MIMA next week. This goes in line with ZDF’s bulletin in alternating weeks, which has been using the same name since 2018.
It also marks the change of its production from RBB in Berlin to MDR in Leipzig, as well as an extended length to 2 hours.
As for what it’ll look like:
In a spacious and inviting studio atmosphere (set design: Rico Chiari, Zurich), the content is visually brought to the fore using large LED media surfaces. The open, modularly designed room with lots of wood and fresh colors evokes a bright midday feeling - sunny and modern. Editorial, moderation and direction can tell stories visually and illustrate complex connections using explanatory graphics, for example, from a single photo or graphic to an atmospheric studio (screen design: Alpenblick GmbH, Munich).
The visual and technological relaunch will take place in two stages: The broadcast will initially be from a virtual studio, which will be replaced by the real, visually identical studio upon completion.
Quoted from the official release.
This was the last programme from RBB, recalling the best moments and bidding the audience goodbye with all the staff:
KBS News 9 has changed to a different opening on the New Year, reverting its programme name back to its Korean writing style, in addition to a track reminiscent to their longtime intro from 1993-2019.
[Update 1/12] The background got a lot more parallelograms instead of the world map since March. There was initially a headline sequence preceding it, but it seemed to be cut later in the year.
And yet it’s slightly different to how they have done it before, and I wonder if there is a soft relaunch going on here, or whether the new intro will stick.
The backdrop in the intro (and other graphics, which appear to not have been updated since the previous set) uses the long-time name of “KBS News 9”, even when written in Hangul (as it used to be).
But the short intro itself is now calling it the “KBS 9 O’Clock News” (the added bit in the corner just means “Special”, which they also added similarly on the day of the last rebrand). There is the extra character for the “o’clock” which distinguishes it from, say, the “SBS 8 [o’clock] News” wordmark when it was written in Hangul.
It’s a very subtle change, at least visually… not knowing Korean speech I couldn’t say whether they’d been calling it the “9 O’Clock News” all along and this would just align it.
Here’s the new opening sequence and (temporary virtual) set design. The set design looks good (and will look even better when translated into a real setting).
As for ZDF, they remain in Berlin and with the same look, but have expanded also into the new, two-hour length:
French commercial broadcaster TF1 is joining the morning wars from today. After the highly publicized hiring of former BFM TV presenter Bruce Toussaint back in the Summer, the network’s news and current affairs team has been working at a breakneck pace to prepare the new morning show, aptly titled Bonjour ! - La Matinale TF1, which will air from 7 to 9:30am.
The format will be very similar to France 2’s Télématin (in a sense, taking cues heavily from Today and GMA), and will compete with that show, BFM TV’s Première édition (which, from the start of the year has counterprogrammed both shows with more lifestyle content) and the news-oriented morning programs on the news channels (including LCI’s new program with Jean-Baptiste Boursier, another former BFM presenter; LCI’s morning show is more oriented on politics and more specifically on geopolitical issues, and will complement TF1’s effort).
Nevertheless, the show is taking away from LCI some of its segment anchors, including weatherman Ange Noiret, political pundit Adrien Gindre and former regular presenters Stefan Etcheverry and Hélène Mannarino; the network is also moving some of its presenters, including Garance Pardigon and Christophe Beaugrand, and has hired some outsiders, including Télématin’s Maud Deschamps. The network’s regional partners will also feature on the new program.
(Video sourced from Lenodal)
The show has been heavily promoted during the Christmas holiday, and is part of the broadcaster’s plans to boost its daytime schedule, long occupied by teleshopping and dubbed versions of CBS soaps, plus a required by law slot for children’s programming, and try to take away some of France 2’s daytime viewership; the situation with children’s programming led to TF1 reconsidering plans to start the show at 6.30am. Whilst retaining an hour of the TFOU block from 6-7am on weekdays, TF1 is moving late morning cartoon block to sister teen-oriented network TFX, and expanding its weekend block.
Additionally, TF1 is completely rebooting the popular French soap opera Plus belle la vie, with a new, shorter format and new storylines; it is also relaunching its AVOD streaming platform MyTF1 as TF1+, with enhanced new features and content.
In the midst of Poland’s political (and public broadcasting) troubles, Polsat launched Polsat News Polityka on cable and satellite platforms, moving Wydarzenia 24 to terrestrial-only.
The relaunched channel has a heavy focus on political debates around the Polish parliament, in their own words:
Polsat News Polityka offers viewers, among others: direct broadcasts of the Sejm and Senate sessions. Broadcasts of the meetings of all investigative commissions are also planned.
The proceedings of the new Sejm undoubtedly arouse incredible interest among Poles who follow what is happening there with almost the same emotions as the best cinema, TV series or sport. And that’s great, because it increases society’s awareness of how the state functions and civil society is created. We respond to these trends by investing in the development of our offer of information channels. Hence our idea for the Polsat News Polityka channel and a large dose of the best journalism - adds Piotr Witwicki [Polsat’s Director of the Information and Journalism Division].
New programmes fronting the channel: Studio Parliament, broadcasting live from the parliament; and Debacie Polityczne, a panel discussion programme. These are their openers:
And an abrupt cutoff from one channel to the other.
A rundown of the infographic-heavy Taiwanese news channel graphics for the presidential election.
Public Media
PTS News: They’ve got a signed version on Youtube, which I think is the only broadcaster that does so.
CTS News: Little animation of the president candidate at the main lower thirds.
Taiwan Plus (English):
Pro-KMT commercial channels
TVBS News: Multiple feeds online - One under their political discussion programme, statistic-heavy ones and one that more resembles what they’d air on TV.
CTV News:
Pro-DPP commercial channels
SETN: A slim flipper on other news headlines at the top of the screen.
EBC News: A horizontally very busy scene with all the statistics and ads on both sides.
Era News: Headed by the channel’s biggest personalities. The ‘octopus’ is presumably stemmed from the World Cup predictor, indicating the vote counts of small towns indicative of the final results.
Formosa TV: Scarce on candidate images.
Other commercial channels
Next TV (sister channel to Era News):
TTV News:
Global News:
Hong Kong
As a side note, two news channels in Hong Kong is also holding a tally count of the ballots - Hoy Info (Ch.78) in a bar at the top left hand corner, TVB News Channel (Ch.83) a pushback on the left.
A side side note
Graphics for the policy presentation sessions before the election (televised by Formosa TV) was under a redesign initiative between the Central Election Commission and Taiwan Design Research Institute. This is to provide a cleaner and more coherent identity across TV, mailed information booklets, election booths and the authority’s information center. This is the opening for the presentation sessions:
Presidential debates, meanwhile, follows host broadcaster PTS’ graphics.
Informativos Telecinco launched a new look and studio, coinciding with a period of upheaval at Mediaset España, which is sorting out a strategy to bring back audiences whilst stopping depending too much on gossip panel programming and reality shows (a strategy that has been steadily gaining some traction but still a long way off to beat Antena 3 and RTVE’s strategy of airing “event” programming to great success).
As part of the strategy, led by Mediaset Italy’s veteran executive Alessandro Salem, a decision to boost back the quality and credbility of its news programming was made, with the first step being made by hiring veteran executive Francisco Moreno, who recently led the Canary Islands public broadcaster RTVC, and was hired by Mediaset given his successes in the regional broadcaster, including leading ground-breaking coverage of the La Palma volcano disaster and subsequent recovery efforts; in turn, in a change which generated heavy media buzz, Carlos Franganillo, longtime foreign correspondent at RTVE, and who most recently anchored Telediario on weeknights, joined the broadcaster to succeed Pedro Piqueras, who retired after 18 years with the network, and 35 years in television (working for every major broadcaster, first RTVE, then Antena 3, then back to RTVE, and lately at Mediaset), and half a century in journalism in Spain.
Piqueras brought to Telecinco a much more populist style with a more tabloid approach, with more issue-based reporting, lighter stories and lots of sports and bullfighting reports; the formula not only generated high ratings and pursued Telecinco to its most successful years in the mid-2000s and 2010s, buoyed by a popular gossip panel and even a game show, but also helped the newsroom to cut costs, at a degree the broadcaster rarely covered election nights and special events during the height of the Vasile era to prioritise its much more lucrative reality shows. The set, known for its replica of the Singapore skyline, also survived with little change for 18 years.
With Franganillo and Moreno onboard, a massive anchor rejigging has been made to accommodate the new look; further changes include a much bigger studio set design, with a 31 meter videowall designed for XR and for split screens (even up to three with 8K quality), plus a fully robotized workflow which will also include AI generated shots. The new space will also include dynamic lighting depending on the edition.
The result is finally here: a much more dynamic style of presentation, a cleaner L3 design and a much broader selection of stories (more political and international stories) which contrasted to the story selection often prioritized by Piqueras. In all, the story selection is more middle-market and serious, mixing hard news with quirky and lighter stories, something more akin to what Antena 3 does currently, albeit with a more serious delivery. The open still looks very Mediaset (very template-like) and the theme music used in a form and other since 2006 has been retained, but remixed and edited with a new contemporary style, but otherwise, a dramatic and heavy improvement compared to the fixed shot of the Singapore skyline, to which Franganillo did also make a reference when ending his first newscast.
Teleexpress returned to TVP1 earlier this month. Like 19.30, they’re coming from the former TVP Sport studio, which is possibly the reason why the set had a more sporty appearance. This Polish article has the details.
A week after Teleexpress’ return, Panorama also returned to TVP2 and TVP Info in a different timeslot, headed by Piotr Jędrzejek and Jarosław Kulczycki. Unlike other TVP news programmes starting anew, the previous editorial team is partially staying.
Meanwhile, TV Globo’s national newscasts in São Paulo (morning news Horas Um, afternoon news Jornal Hoje and nighttime news Jornal da Globo) has moved into a temp set, as the main newsroom is under renovation for the next few months.
https://twitter.com/juliocesartqn/status/1747208852989161613
After relaunching Informativos Telecinco, Mediaset brought Noticias Cuatro back to its sister station. The brand is currently used in weekday 2pm and 8pm editions, as well as a separate weekend edition. The 2pm edition is presented by Alba Lago, while the 8pm is headed by Diego Losada and Mónica Sanz. Marta Reyero fronts the weekends.
This is the first handover to the 2pm news.
Like Telecinco, Cuatro gets a new set coinciding with this, using the same AI system that secures the anchor’s face in the picture. More eye-opening is the tongue-like display at the middle of the set, allowing images to flow upwards.
This is the sneak peek around the set:
In South Korea, after 4 years of cancellation, KBS2 relaunched their 8.30pm international news slot with KBS World 24 (not to be confused with their online news channel dedicated to overseas Koreans, now KBS Korea). This is their new open:
The parent company of Bell Media, BCE, eliminated 4800 positions today. This includes many who work at Bell Media.
Some of the impacts include:
Bell Media is also selling 45 radio stations, citing that radio is no longer a viable business.
Absolute blood bath at CTV, handing a lot of viewers on a silver platter to Global.
Bound to happen considering the cuts they made mid last year.
There’s now not much left to cut for next time.
That is huge, nearly 5000 people affected. Won’t be the last, I’m sure.
Always strikes me as odd that large media companies like this can run at such big losses and only take drastic action like this when it’s effectively too late, while they’ve failed to innovate early and get ahead of higher production costs in news and slumps in advertising periods etc.
Really poor management all round.