Overseas TV History

TV History
1043

You might remember that CNN being the exclusive overnight source for Ten during the Gulf War, but what if the name took over midnight to early mornings in a different tongue?

Meet the CNN programmes from TV Asahi in Japan, which came at a time when the Japanese people were avid viewers of American TV (either for learning a language or for another perspective on the news), according to this 1988 NYT article:

Interest in an American perspective on world events has also enjoyed a boomlet, although, once again, at irregular hours. Anyone awake in the middle of the night can catch the CBS Evening News on the Tokyo Broadcasting System, or CNN Headline News on Television Asahi. Last month Fujisankei Communications launched an early-morning news program from New York, featuring two Japanese-speaking Americans.

They began in the mid-80s with Ohayo! [Good Morning] CNN and DayWatch. Both were panel programmes using footage from CNN shows, the former in the morning while the latter before the station closed down. This was the DayWatch open, circa 1985 (judging by the Navratilova defeat):

And in 1992 (that discussed Oliver Stone’s JFK by quoting the director’s appearance on Larry King):

Apparently, both shows were presented by bilingual female hosts, which was uncommon in Japanese TV then:

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/17/arts/japanese-women-speak-out-on-new-tv-news-programs.html

Ohayo! was succeeded by CNN Morning in 1989, which had a segment dedicated to learning English. It would undergo some time changes as another show, CNN Daybreak, launched the next year. The latter also had its own share of changes, from 30 to 90 minutes long and finally 60 - this was the opener to the hour-long version from 1993:

There were also separate weekend shows with different names and setup, but its information was even more scarce than its weekday counterpart.

The aforementioned CNN Headline, on the other hand, was a short midnight news roundup that outlasted other CNN-branded shows and ended in 1999. This came from 1994:

Nowadays, TV Asahi’s cable TV subsidiary is still responsible for bringing the localized CNN (CNNj) into the Japanese household - a lineage to its relationship with the Atlanta-based station.

Meanwhile, Taiwan TV, the first commercial broadcaster in the island, tapped into world news coverage with TTV News World Report weekdays at 10.30pm in 1987. Its early iteration was an adaptation of CNN Evening/Prime News, right down to the opener. The programme had since become a cornerstone of their newsroom.

From 1988, they also used a brief excerpt of NewsWatch (with Chinese translations of the headlines overlaid) in their morning programme, Good Morning TTV News:

1 Like
1044

Aaaaah the Japanese. Would that explain Zuiikin’ English? :rofl:

https:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v=CKjaFG4YN6g&pp=ygUdaSBoYXZlIGEgYmFkIGNhc2Ugb2YgZGlhcnJoZWE%3D

Pepto Bismol just sleeping on the catchiest jingle of all time!

1045

News 5 Tonight from Christmas Eve 1997, presented by Jill Neubronner, with the top story the recovery of wreckage from Silk Air Flight 185 (notice the much different graphics, a sheer simplification of the original Novocom ones, plus the usage of the standard “Where It All Happens” close rather than an edit of it and the bumper):

1 Like
1046

The first ever opener and close sequence of the current version of the ITV News at Ten in 2008.

The return of News at Ten was the brainchild of Michael Grade, and one of the highlights of Grade’s rocky tenure as executive chairman of ITV. Grade had previously told in March 2007 that the removal of News at Ten had been “a shocking mistake [that] damaged ITV more than anything else”. By October, as part of a long-term restructuring of the ITV plc regions (which included the controversial merger of regional TV and news areas into macro-regions, prioritising revenue-generating light entertainment content, and a more consistent schedule based around regular slots for genres), Grade announced the return of the legendary ITN broadcast.

The broadcast returned on January 14, 2008; the bulletin initially only aired from Monday to Thursday; in order to air big ticket entertainment programming without any interruptions (other than ad breaks), the Friday bulletins aired an hour later and were broadcast under the name “The Late News”; this move was undone by March 2009, with News at Ten airing on its prime 10pm slot five nights a week.

One of the big draws was the return of longtime newscaster Trevor McDonald, who temporarily went out of retirement to present the revived bulletin; he eventually announced his retirement once the 2008 American election was over, which happened on November 20. ITV also hired Julie Etchingam away from Sky News to serve as co-anchor, as the bulletin returned to a dual presentation in the historic News at Ten tradition. Mark Austin served as primary relief presenter, and also anchored with Etchingam the Friday editions; he eventually took McDonald’s post as main anchor. Editorially, the content was very much in line with ITV News at the time, at the height of Deborah Turness’ tenure as editor, which was marked by cootchie coo and tabloid content, with an emphasis on controversial high-profile interviews and exclusives.

The presentation of the relaunched programme was, at that time, distinctive from the rest of ITV News’ output. Under the direction of Kojo Boateng and Glenn Marshall, then ITN creative directors, and featuring Steve Shaw and Kevin O’Dell, the Theatre of News studio was completely redesigned in a distinctive VR design with a panoramic night-time view of London overlooking the River Thames. VR glass elements also appeared in the studio to provide graphics and live links with correspondents and reporters. Supers and other graphic elements were aligned with the ITV News branding, though with distinctive dark blue and orange hues.

The big draw of the presentation was the opener, itself based on the 1988 title sequence, the best remembered of the programme, down to the animation over London concluding on Big Ben. However, the new version, animated and produced by the Motion Picture Company was more photorealistic, using improved rendering, texturisation and lighting. Dave Hewson and Bill Bayliss also remixed the legendary “The Awakening” theme music, with the opener cue based on the original arrangement from Johnny Pearson; other cues, including the closing theme, mixed elements of the Pearson arrangements and the 1992 arrangements from Hewson and Bayliss, commissioned for that year’s relaunch of the original version of the bulletin. Additionally, instead of a closing sting, a jib pan across the studio showing the bulletin’s logo was used to end the opener sequence; this shot was often pre-recorded before broadcast, due to the complexity of the shot and the impossibility of filming it with other studio cameras.

Eventually, ITV adapted the News at Ten presentation style and extended it to the rest of the bulletins on February 9, 2009. ITV executives had wanted since late 2007 to refresh the ITV News programmes by taking them “back to basics”, including paring back the use of graphics, standing presentation, and the Theatre of News virtual newswall, in favour of a more traditional newsreader-in-a-desk presenting style. The supers were adapted for the daytime and evening bulletins with a lighter blue hue, replacing the teal-colored 2006 graphics, as was the studio, with the London VR view reflecting each bulletin’s time of broadcast. The only element remaining from the prior 2006 look was the pre-top story opening animation.

This change was short-lived: by October, citing “London-centricity” of the Big Ben icon, the yellow “car park” look which led to News at Ten losing its identity and to all ITV News bulletins to have a common identity with the ITV1 network branding, was announced to debut from November that same year, lasting through the network rebrand in 2013.

1 Like
1047

All the talk around MSNBC M.S.N.O.W. led me to a path looking for America’s Talking-related stuff on YouTube, and TIL that the people behind it still meet up, thirty years after the channel went dark:

(Courtesy of Terry Anzur, one of the presenters of AT’s In Depth show, now a talent coach and travel YouTuber)

2 Likes
1048

A compilation of bumpers and idents from Canal Fox (cable/satellite entertainment channel for Latin American viewers) in the mid-1990s. This amazing identity was designed by Pittard Sullivan :heart:

Canal Fox was replaced by Star Channel in February 2021.

1 Like
1049

A clearer version of MSNBC’s first 20 minutes has surfaced, and what better time to share it than on their ‘liberation day’ from NBC?

and along the same lines from another Versant channel: The last 22 minutes of the Financial News Network - the older business channel that was bought by CNBC, after going bankrupt from financial mismanagement.

3 Likes
1050

A compilation of news intros and bumpers from Next TV News in Taiwan, from 2011 to 2013:

This was the time when Jimmy Lai’s Next Media dabbled into broadcasting. Although the mogul’s media empire started in Hong Kong, his print publications (Next Magazine and Apple Daily) were popular in the island since the early 2000s. As HK print media were prohibited to branch into TV before 2018, Taiwan became a prime location for Lai to expand his media business.

Next TV was hence established in 2009, initially as a group of channels covering news, sports, variety, movies and teleshopping. Yet NCC, the island’s telecommunications authority, rejected their cable license application for the news channel twice in 2009 and 2010, citing 3D animation re-enactments - Apple Daily’s infamous online news format - being overly dramatised and unprofessional as the reason. Lai, though, speculated that the political factor was also at play, considering his company and the incumbent KMT government had opposing stances on the PRC.

To bypass the license restrictions, they streamed the channels online and via VOD set-top boxes, some of which were given away for free. Their bulletins also aired on an existing news channel, Global News’ 2nd channel on IPTV, as one of their content providers (which didn’t go unnoticed by the authority).

It wasn’t until 2011, when Lai met with the authority members and promised 7 points on the channel’s future operation, including not to produce animations containing sex, violence and nudity or dubbing the people involved, that the channel was greenlit.

In contrast to their brash print sisters, Next TV’s coverage was regarded as relatively objective (some even said too tame by Apple Daily’s standards), with various segments unique to Taiwanese TV news (such as viewer feedback, which might be traced back to the Corrections column on the tabloid). NTV also aimed for a more visual presentation of news stories, hence was Taiwan’s first news channel with all-digital, full HD production, plus cleaner supers and a mixed use of virtual visual aids (separate from the tabloid’s controversial animation).

The openers in the compilation included:

  • Morning News at 7/8am
  • Afternoon News at 12nn/1pm
  • Evening News at 6/7pm
  • Late News at 10/11pm
  • TOTH News
  • Breaking News
  • Taiwanese News at 5pm - newscast spoken in the island dialect
  • NTV Press Conference, fmr. the 7pm news on their Variety channel

This was their ident and junction in 2011:

However, it wasn’t smooth sailing from here: multiple local cable TV providers refused to put the channel on air, limiting its penetration. The group was also a loss-making business from the start - before its online launch, Lai claimed that NTV, with all the people and equipment, burns NT$100 million per month. Some channels became short-lived, such as the Finance Channel coming and going in less than a year.

In late 2012, Lai wished to sell NTV (now consisting of News, Variety and Movie channels), initially to Taiwanese media mogul Lien Tai-sheng, owner of Era News, for US$48 million.

The sale later included the print business and to a different consortium, led by Taiwanese entrepreneurs and a Singapore-based private equity fund, for US$600 million. It caused public uproar, as Tsai Eng-ming, owner of Wang Wang China Times Group, was later found involved in the Singapore equity fund. Tsai’s company then owned the paper China Times, TV stations China TV and CTi News, plus recently acquired cable TV providers that blocked Next TV, and was staunchly pro-Beijing.

Worried about the potential limit of press freedom and further influence of pro-Beijing narratives, this sparked the anti-media monopoly movement. It was led by students, scholars and media activists, who demanded tighter regulations on media ownership and asked viewers to boycott Tsai’s media outlets. Tsai eventually withdrew from the consortium, and the sale collapsed.

Ultimately, Next TV returned to the hands of Lien and the news channel became a sister channel to Era News in April 2013. As the two channels now pool resources in their reporting, some panned the slipping quality of the coverage on Next TV as a result.

Era modified the Next TV supers as their own later that year (but later tweaked it further to resemble their old layout):

1 Like
1051

NBC celebrating 100 years of broadcasting

YouTube: TODAY

5 Likes
1052

lez67stz99gd1
lez67stz99gd11908×1080 270 KB

From the ITV Strike of 1979. Yorkshire Televsion displayed an alternative notice from the standard caption card across the network with that message from Yorkshire Police seeking information to try and capture the Yorkshire ripper. A real moment in time that the strike was happening when Peter Sutcliffe was spreading his rein of terror.

3 Likes