International News Presentation: Past and Present

I have a question to ask, which may seem more than a little ‘anoraky’, and it is presenter-related, for which I apologise in advance.

Does anyone here know why so many European broadcasters operate not on the system of having fixed weekday and weekend presenters for their newscasts, but rather having different presenters (or pairings of presenters) alternating weekly? German broadcasters seem to love this system - in fact, I think nearly all of them use it to some degree - as do some Austrian, Belgian and Dutch newscasts. I’d be interested to know what the rationale behind such a system is, as opposed to the one used by us and the rest of the English-speaking world.

On another note, why is that in most other countries, the main newscasts air at the same time seven days a week, but here weekend newscasts are mostly a movable feast?

Just to add France into that hat, this used to be common practice for the majority of France 3 regional news. There seems to be no exact reason why but a few years ago it was suggested that it was due to the fiscal status of journalists in France; by working for a particular channel one week and then doing something else in the other, they remain freelance and there are fewer, if any, “charges patronales” for media companies. I’m not too sure if this is the case in other EU countries.

Many remaining regions which maintain the alternating weeks are Alsace, Provence-Alpes, the 2 Normandys and Pays de la Loire.

In the UK, alternating weeks are uncommon but not unheard of. The 5am slot on BBC News used to be 1 week of Naga Munchetty followed by 1 week of Komla Dumor and there was also an ITV night shift which was the 2230 London bulletin, an occasional overnight flash and the 0530 Morning News which used to alternate as 1 week of Charlene White and 1 week of another presenter.

I’m not 100% on this but from observation there seems to be alternating weeks on ITV’s London and 1:30 bulletins but I don’t think there remains alternating weeks of news presenters on UK TV any more.

In terms of the timing of weekend broadcasts, it seems to be that the UK has different viewing habits and the fast we “always” have two evening bulletins on weekends on BBC/ITV.

Exactly twelve years ago, Danish broadcaster DR was about to move its news operations from the TV-Byen ( TV-City , in use since the seventies) to the newly built DR-Byen building.

Here are excerpts from the last TV-Avisen broadcast from the TV-Byen on the 18th of November, 2006, including a report looking back at the history of the TV-Avisen.

It was also the last bulletin to feature this award-winning look designed by Front Nordic (and which still doesn't look very outdated at the present day, aside from the font, imho); the following day, the TV-Avisen adopted a new intro with a different music.

KTTV Fox 11 in Los Angeles, 1993. Before the Fox News Channel launched, for a period in the early 90s, some Fox-owned stations branded their newscasts as simply "Fox News." This is one of the slicker executions.

Thanks for posting that - I'd seen clips from that time, but I hadn't seen the full send off package. I was reading a couple of days ago that DR still used the old studios at TV-Byen in Søborg until earlier this year (for drama productions, not news).

Meanwhile, KTTV's competitor KCOP had a presentation (and writing) style closely resembling that of CityTV in Toronto (starts at 0:20):

TVNZ 1, New Zealand, 2018:

Star News Asia, Star World, December 2006:

As a follow-up to yesterday's post from me, here are videos from the first TV-Avisen bulletins aired from DR-Byen, exactly twelve years ago on 19 November 2006.

TV-Avisen at midday, intro with headlines


TV-Avisen at midday, outro


TV-Avisen at 6:30pm, intro with headlines

Maksi-TV/Nash Telekanal, Ukraine, 2018:

Newshub Live at 6, Three, New Zealand, 2018:

Buletin Utama, TV3 Malaysia, November 2018 (livestream of the first 40 minutes only):