CNN International & Domestic

You've hit the nail on the head there Markos. Its downfall has come as a result of it becoming too personality driven. I always find it worrying (and something of a turn-off) when a network's presenters become bigger than the programmes, and more importantly, the news. Back in the 90s and 00s with all news programmes, be it CNN, BBC World, BBC News, ITN etc, you tuned in not for who was presenting, but instead for the content. This whole social media revolution appears to have inflated certain media egos to the extent that they - and their networks - think they're the star attraction of their broadcast. What worries me is that BBC World is also going the same way as CNN. Not only with all these personality-driven programmes, but also with a lot more sport coverage than they used to have. Nearly every hour there's an edition of Sport Today, whereas the schedule used to feature more varied and interesting programmes even on weekdays. But that discussion's for another thread.

I started to lose faith in CNN when World News was axed; its programmes starting focusing too much on their presenters; and it reduced its amount of live news and increased its coverage of sports and quota of taped programmes. I mean what sort of serious news channel airs sport at the top of the hour?! Lunacy! I remember some time last year when I was beginning to lose my patience with CNN, I realised that there was going to be a 4-hour wait for a news bulletin! I hit the remote and I don't think I've been back since. There needs to be some radical changes if they want me back.

Oh yes, Markos, I forgot to say... wow, that 1997 theme tune brings back some memories! I think that was the theme in around 1995 when I saw CNN for the very first time. What a great theme

Exactly. The thing is, many of their producers and people who make these shows and how they look, actually come from local US channels and news outputs. Sadly it really shows on some of the CNNI shows.

As for the ''appointment to view'' approach, well we can thank Katherine Green for that. She's the one who envisioned this new CNNI. Needless to say she also came from local US news, with 0 experience in internationa news channels. She moved to Headline News (another CNN domestic channel) last year, thank God but her mark is still felt.

http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/green.katherine.html

I don't want to be too negative cause I don't dislike most of CNNI shows. Hala's IDesk is great, Quests's show is something CNN should have. But there shouldn't be so many special themed/called shows. Global Exchange is another new useless addition, from Abu Dhabi. Newscenter with Isha could be just a normal WR following Amanpour (though I like the newsroom setting). I like NewsStream with Kristie, it is a normal bulletin but it does have a special accent on technology, internet and stuff like that which are Kristie's specialty. So it does have something unique. W1 is the only double headed bulletin that looks like something out of old CNN and it's probably my favorite hour, along with Hala's IDesk.

Agree that a sport show at top of the hour is ridiculous. Sadly it happens 2 times during European mornings (6 am and then a replay at 9am CET )

Anyway, finally switching to 16:9 would be a good start for changes in better direction.

I only have access to CNNI at certain times of the year but I always found myself watching 'The Brief' ahead of Sky and BBC and the American networks. Then CNN go and drop it. The last time I sae CNNI (a couple of months ago) all they wanted to do was talk about their glory days in a program I think was call Backstory. The Brief was the only time you could get fast paced hardline news on the channel.

Oh yeah, Backstory. Another pet hate of mine. Who gives one about how it's done? They ought to have spent more time actually reporting the news rather than reporting how they report the news. It was consistent with the modern self-obsessed agenda though. I for one was glad to hear it had been axed.

Both The Brief and Backstory are still on CNNI. The Brief airs live on Fridays in it's old timeslot, with weekend repeats, with analysis on the week's big stories. It's better than nearly every other taped show on CNNI, but it's not a replacement for the 'orginal' The Brief

Backstory also airs at weekends, but it's nothing like it used to be. At first it was fresh and interesting, seeing how the news came together. Towards the end of it's weekday run, it became more and more filled with filler, bits from other shows and interviews that wouldn't be out of place on a normal news show. A move to just one edition a week could have condensed the remaining unique content into one half hour, but it seems to be more of a 'best of CNNI this week' show now

Kind of sums up CNNI well, not as good as it once was

I agree with pretty much everything that has been said here. The rebranding of World News as World Report didn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but it turned out to be one - the show now includes lots of filler, doesn't have a consistent format and the music is dire - nowhere near as good as the old themes. The graphics are also too much.

With regards to the new shows - some of them are OK. World One is good but not that different to World Report, it used to be an interesting, different show when it aired in the evenings. Connect the World is OK, Amanpour is 95% of the time a fantastic insight into the day's news, but the two-hour old repeat is just silly. Two of the best shows - The Brief and Prism - made way for Global Exchange and another World Sport which are both vastly inferior. BackStory was good when it started but I'm glad it's only a weekly show now as it's full of filler. Newscenter is better than BackStory but I don't really like Isha, she's too overdramatic.

There's also far too much sport and ridiculous US simulcasts and replays, such as the 8-hour old Quest Means Business replay and 5-hour old The Situation Room replay, and 21-hour old Piers Morgan replay. Long gone are the days when you'd wait a maximum of 90 minutes for another news bulletin which was acceptable in my eyes. Even the headlines updates tend to last barely 30 seconds in comparison to 90 seconds-3 minutes on the 'old' CNNI.

My pet hate though is the sidelining of certain anchors. Jim Clancy, Fionnuala Sweeney, Jon Mann, Ralitsa Vassileva, Colleen McEdwards are sidelined to filling in or weekend slots with 15 minute bulletins whereas Isha Sesay has pranced her way around the newsroom into a weekday show, and CNN Domestic couldn't find a place for Ali Velshi so he got a slot on CNNI instead of Charles Hodson who has done business news on CNN for years. And while there are three hour gaps in the schedule too which could be filled with more news.

I don't think BBC World will go this far but they are losing it ever so slightly - business coverage is not what it used to be, there's far too much focus on sport, but they do still have news every hour which is what an international news channel needs to do.

Nail on head, there. Apart from World One, there are also no programs which are double headed. Not that every single program needs to be, but once in a while during the day, it would break up the monotony. (and I don't mean double headed slots like World Business coming from two different cities with vast time delays......)

It's a shame, actually. CNNI used to be really fantastic. In days gone by and as a frequent traveller, if I checked into a hotel and BBC World wasn't available, I would ALWAYS select CNN as an alternative, if it was available. Now, I avoid CNN totally. Not so good.

Ali Velshi sidelined Maggie Lake. Charles Hodson has reduced his hours to become a priest with the Church of England

I agree with a lot of these opinions - I think the problem here is that CNN is trying to do just too much. They may claim to be the world's news leader but how on earth can they present a genuinely 'news'-focused agenda if throughout the day they have entertainment (PMT, Talk Asia, hits throughout WR), 5 sports bulletins a day, 3 hour-long weekday business shows, 4 editions of Amanpour chat and as much as 6 hours of filler, repeats and delays? This of course notwithstanding such favourites as 'Eye On Kazakhstan', 'MainSail' and 'African Voices'.

CNN needs to get it straight - News. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy the whole "Go Beyond Borders" idea - it's unique but that should mean I should get news from all around the world all around the clock - if that be in the format of World Report, International Desk or World One - I don't care - and although CNN are very popular according to several surveys in comparison to BBC World News or Al Jazeera, primetime should mean solid news viewing not the **** on at the moment. CNNI is the only channel where primetime is actually WORSE than off-peak. If I ever watch CNN - it's for World One (1100), IDesk (15/1800) or WR (0000) - which are all on the cusp of primetimes worldwide but are then followed by rubbish (PMT follows W1, Global Ex follows IDesk, 5 hours of nonsense follows WR).

Finally, the talent is cringeworthy. Clancy is a veteran war reporter, Gorani has appeared on several successful women lists, Mann works with the Nobel committee, Pinto works with UEFA and Sweeney/McEdwards have moderated all sorts of debates and presented news for years so why the 'real' faces of CNNI seem to be: Sesay who struts around as if she is the news, Piers Morgan whose persona has been built in tabloids and winning The Apprentice, Anderson Cooper - yawn, Holmes who, after BackStory, is just a cringe, Coren's totally awkward bulletins and Mr Monotonous Defterios. The best are shunted to fill-ins and weekends and the rest get weekday primetime or at least an hour.

CNN, I think it's time for another re-vamp - and this time, please give us some news! Fionnuala an IDesk? News every hour? No more endless repeats? More weekend news? The Brief with Mann/Clancy? A NEWS channel?

I think the bigger problem about CNN Worldwide is that they have no vision as to who they should be. CNN Domestic is struggling to figure out whether they should be a centrist counterpoint to Fox News and MSNBC; CNN International is operating on a shoestring budget; and HLN is trying to be a tabloid-on-TV.

Whomever takes Jim Walton's job needs to have a strong, clear vision for what CNN should be. CNN International needs to be what is once was– a strong competitor to BBC World with international news every hour, on the hour. I think CNN Domestic, in addition to having live news every hour, on the hour, would work well if they changed their content and style to match that of NPR– smart, intelligent journalism, international news, and interesting culture and conversation. HLN needs to go in the trash where it belongs. I've always thought that it would be smart to dissolve HLN and replace it with CNNI, so that Americans could finally have access to it, and that it would also finally be in high definition.

Unless they get a clear vision of who they are and how news should be their priority, CNN will only become more and more irrelevant on all the platforms on which they broadcast.

I completely agree.

Sometimes watching CNN gives me the impression that they have a strong disdain for basic news reporting. Weird, distracting and pointless formats are used to add some sort of awful infotainment angle, discrediting the reports themselves which normally seem to be of a high standard.

Advert breaks are far too regular, especially considering how few actually commercials they air. Presumably they're just following the American ad break format but I can't imagine there's any part of the world that is able to fill all these breaks with a reasonable number of ads. Cutting them down might help me stop flicking over to Al Jazeera.

For me I think the biggest problem with CNNI is that it feels too American. Their promos are too OTT and watching their international presenters can often be like watching American presenters with British accents (particularly Richard Quest and Becky Anderson). I can understand that American business travellers probably do make up a sizeable amount of their viewership and they will want to keep them happy but I'm not so sure the rest of the world wants that style of news.

iReport absolutely must die as well.