Inside Cable News is back!

Spud has brought back the Inside Cable News blog, rebranded as ICN 2.0. It's at a new address, which I have put in the links in place of the original.

I'll be keeping an eye on the RSS feed as usual, and if Spud is good on his word, he'll be probably getting regular links from this blog.

Welcome Back, Spud.

Changes at Fox News Watch

Fox News Watch is the Fox News equivalent of CNN's Reliable Sources. I haven't been able to watch it recently because of the fact it changed timeslots. But I respect the programme for the fact it is completely unlike the rest of Fox News output. It truly is fair, balanced and unafraid, especially of criticising their own employers. Still, that is their job, or in some cases, was.

Inside Cable News is reporting that Eric Burns will not be returning to the show when it has a relaunch in the spring. That is a shame, as I like Eric Burns, he was a good moderator on this media discussion show. Trying to control the likes of Neal Gabler, Cal Thomas, Jim Pinkerton and Jane Hall was a tough job for anyone. I hope that Fox doesn't change it for the worse and makes it just like the rest of the network, as that would be disastrous. But I can't help feeling that Fox News Watch's weeks may be numbered.

US Cable News Ratings: Fox lose to CNN Republicans!

Both TV Newser and Inside Cable News have reported the cable numbers for Wednesday 28th November and show that CNN won the battle that night handsomely, with over 4 million people tuned in to watch the CNN/YouTube Republican Debate.

Despite Bill O'Reilly scoring well with over 2.2 million viewers at 8pm ET and 1.2 million viewers at 11pm ET, CNN won the night handsomely. They also have recorded the best figures for any debate this campaign season so far.

Just wait until we get to the presidential debates. Those numbers could well be much higher.

NBC Nightly News: New Studio

As an interested news listener and viewer, I watched this first edition of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams from the rebuilt NBC News World Headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, with more than the usual degree of interest.

Like many othersI had seen the preview images released on various blogs, but basically, I didn't have a clue how the set would look on screen. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the things I saw.

In some ways, the new anchor desk is unique, being L-shaped. This gives you two views of the anchor desk, one with a giant screen as a backdrop, not unlike ABC News, and the other has the newsroom as a backdrop, which is somewhat reminiscent of many 24 hour news channels around the world.

The fact that it reminds me of so many studios in varying ways, rather than any one particular studio, highlights the fact that rather than trying to deliberately copy any other studio, they have tried to do something different, but with elements that are familiar to everyone.

So, do I think the studio looks good? Oh yes, very definitely. They've managed to achieve something that looks different, stylish, practical, reminiscent and distinctive, whilst avoiding being copycat. They've also managed to avoid trying to look too modern, whilst also avoiding looking too staid. It's a difficult balancing act to pull off, but they have managed it, somehow.

Personally, I can't wait for the usual pro-FOX brigade of comment contributors to Inside Cable News to put their usual pro-FOX / anti liberal media spin on this studio. Granted, it's not a studio you would expect to see a FOX News programme, it's too stylish and classy for that. Fox News studios tend to be a bit more in your face than other news studios. This NBC Nightly News studio is almost understated, which actually helps to take the attention off the studio set and onto the stories themselves.

I would give this 9 out of 10.

US Cable News Ratings: Live vs Live + SD: The Debate will continue...

It is noted by Inside Cable News that the Drudge Report has noted that according to the live ratings, the Debate on MSNBC hosted by Tim Russert was beaten by FNC's Hannity and Colmes.

This is true, although the margin was small, just 4,000 viewers(1,453,000 for FNC, 1,449,000 for MSNBC). However, that victory was on the Total Viewers ranking, and it was Live numbers only. On Live + SD, it was the other way around, as reported by TV Newser. 1,472,000 watch the debate on MSNBC, whilst 1,465,000 watched Hannity & Colmes, a victory to MSNBC of 7,000 viewers.

In the 'money demo', whether you use Live or Live + SD, the result is the same, a victory to MSNBC. Live: MSNBC 539,000 vs FNC 426,000; Live + SD: MSNBC 559,000 vs FNC 437,000.

So, on the balance of the numbers, I think it's safe to call that an MSNBC victory overall.

I think it's fair to say that the whole debate on Live vs Live + SD viewing figures is not going to go away anytime soon.

CNN Pipeline goes free...soon!

It looks like the subscription model for online news could soon be dead in the water. Inside Cable News and Media Bistro's TV Newser are both reporting that CNN.com's Pipeline service will change from a subscription model to an advertising model when CNN.com gets enhanced on July 1st 2007.

I'm hoping that CNN take this idea a bit further and offer CNN, CNN Headline News and CNN International as video streams. They already offer an audio stream of CNN, and whilst this is a return to something that they used to do many years ago, they haven't brought back Headline News and CNN International as audio streams, which they used to offer as well as CNN.

The streams don't have to be mega high quality. An 80-150 kbps stream would be generally viewable and listenable, where as BBC News 24's 34kbps stream is just dire.

But this will be a good start for CNN. Now, perhaps this will show to other news channels around the world that the subscription model for online news just isn't sustainable, as people just won't pay for this online, in just the same way, they wouldn't spend £3/$5 to subscribe to a news channel via their cable or satellite provider. That is why news channels tend to be FTA/FTV or Primary subscription at most, not premium, which is what a £3/$5 subscription is considered to be.