US Election Analysis and Coverage.

This election cycle in the US has been the most divided and one of the closest in recent memory, certainly the closest since 2000.  But an improving economy and the most unwelcome of October surprises in Hurricane Sandy, handled brilliantly by President Obama, may have swung the election away from Mitt Romney.  Obama had the easier path to 270 anyway this year, and Mitt Romney looks like he has had just too much to do to turn it round.

However, don't expect the declaration of the winner to be made by 11pm ET / 4am GMT.  This will be a lot closer than the 365 to 173 electoral college votes that we saw in 2008.  Indeed, it's quite possible that Mitt Romney may get more votes overall, but lose the election due to the particular quirks of the US election system.  I am fully expecting the declaration of the winner, to come after Midnight ET, maybe closer to 1am ET.

However, just as interesting as the final result, is just how many people will vote for the third party candidates, as two debates featuring only the 3rd party candidates have aired or are about to air on RT America, one of those debates was actually produced by online TV operation Ora TV with Larry King, former CNN host moderating.  RT America can be seen by over 50 million people in the US, which is still far less than CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, who can all be seen by at least 200 million people, but still means that candidates that have not been seen on more mainstream media outlets, have gotten more exposure this time around than in previous years.

Also, likely to possibly change things around a bit this year, is the Occupy movement, which the right wing media have done their best to downplay or ignore, calling it a spent force or a dead movement.  Now, by contrast, nobody has refered to the Tea Party movement on the Republican side as a spent force, which says to me that the Republicans are genuinely scared of how the Occupy movement could have a major impact on the political scene, especially after the movement changed the discussion framework of the debate on government spending in the US in 2011. 

Another factor that could be an issue is Roseanne Barr.  Whilst the actress and comedienne was unsuccessful in getting nominated for the Green Party, she has used her twitter feed to actively campaign on Green Party issues, to her over 174,000 followers.  It does mean that we are in for a much more interesting time in this election cycle, rather than just who's gonna win.  With Ron Paul backing Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate, it will mean that there are more stories in this election than in 2008.  The only story in 2008, was how much Barack Obama would win by, it was that obvious. 

There will be a lot of coverage of course, on TV and radio, across the world, as this story has global impact.  In the UK, the BBC will have coverage on both radio and television.  Radio 5 Live will start the ball rolling at 10pm GMT / 5pm ET, with Richard Bacon hosting coverage for 8 hours, with 5 Live Breakfast taking over at 6am.  Radio 4 will also have coverage, anchored by James Naughtie and Bridget Kendall, until 6am when the Today programme will continue the coverage.  BBC1 and BBC News Channel will have coverage starting at 11.35pm, and continuing into Breakfast.  Outside of the BBC, ITV is anchoring its own coverage also starting at 11.35pm and going on into Daybreak.  Commercial radio however, doesn't seem to be covering it outside of news bulletins.  LBC, the UK's only news/talk station, has no speciall coverage planned as I write this, although I expect the overnight hosts will talk about it, with a full roundup expected in The Morning News with Susan Bookbinder at 6.30am.

Satellite viewers can expect to find a lot of coverage.  One of the more unexpected sources this time is PBS America, who are airing the live PBS NewsHour coverage from Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, starting at 11pm GMT and going on until at least 5am.  Sky News are starting their coverage at 10.30pm, and going on until 9am.  Bloomberg's coverage starts at Midnight and runs until 5am.  CNBC is providing their own coverage after the live NBC Nightly News at 11.30pm, and the coverage goes on until 7am.  Al Jazeera's coverage runs from 9pm to 7am, whilst FOX News Channel's coverage starts at 11pm and goes on until 10am.  But CNN International take the award for the most coverage, starting off at 11am, including a special hour long edition of Amanpour at 8pm, switching to a simulcast of CNN USA at 9pm until 7am, when they resume coverage until 3pm, when they switch to a modified normal schedule, with an additional hour of International Desk at 5pm.  Although Piers Morgan Tonight is scheduled for 11pm, I expect that to be replaced with an edition of World Report from Hong Kong.

Over in Ireland, TV coverage is the order of the night, as radio seems to be giving live overnight coverage a wide berth.  Neither RTE Radio 1 nor NewsTalk have any scheduled coverage outside of daytime and news bulletins.  NewsTalk's George Hook is presenting his drivetime programme, The Right Hook, from America all week, but there is no overnight coverage scheduled.  On television RTE 1 has their own anchored coverage from 11.35pm until 3am, then they join CBS News for their coverage at 3am, switch to EuroNews at 7am, before RTE return to their own anchored coverage at 8am until 9.40am.

TV3 on the other hand, are doing something weird.  Undoubtedly, the story will feature in the regularly scheduled Tonight with Vincent Brown at 11pm.  TV3 will join CNN's live coverage at 2am until Ireland AM starts at 7am.  However, betweem Midnight and 2am, TV3 are showing Psychic Readings Live.  I don't need to be psychic to know that TV3 will basically have given RTE the ratings victory in that timeslot.  Also, Ireland AM is not known for its news coverage, so that could be an interesting programme.

As we get closer to Election Day in the US, I will be finding out more about how other broadcasters around the world will be covering the story, and I will update the blog with those details as I find them.  Also, if I get any word on internet streams of coverage, and I expect there to be such streams from Politico and Democracy Now amongst others, then I'll bring that information to you as well.  On the night, I myself will be live tweeting on @cityprod.  It should be a fascinating night.

Viewpoint Sports: Blatter on Racism; Shake hands.

This is the video clip where Sepp Blatter, FIFA's gaffe-prone President, once again opens that golden mouth of his and sticks both feet in right up to the knee, on the topic of racism.



When your time at the governing body has been tainted by the whiff of a suspicion of corruption, and the stench of it pervades, then you really need to be very careful what you say.

Amanpour to leave CNN.

TV Newser is reporting the worst kept secret of the week.  Christiane Amanpour is leaving CNN to join ABC News in the US as anchor of “This Week”, the weekly political and public affairs programme.

This will mean that Amanpour will finish at the end of April before Christiane takes over on This Week in August.

When Amanpour does finish, CNN should move Connect The World to 8pm, and put World One on at 9pm, before Back|Story at 10pm, all times are UK by the way.

“Hope For Haiti Now” – a global telethon.

“Hope For Haiti Now” is something of a first.  A global telethon that  will truly be seen worldwide.

CNN International will be airing the 2 hour telethon at 8pm ET / 5pm PT / 0100 GMT / 0200 CET.  It is also being aired internationally on National Geographic Channels around the world and MTV channels around the world, including China.

In Canada, the CBC and CTV are both airing the telethon.  So far, I have heard nothing about any UK or Irish terrestrial broadcasters taking the telethon.  US Local broadcasters, including affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and PBS, are airing the telethon at 8pm local time, except in the Central time zone where it airs at 7pm. 

Any further news on broadcasters airing the telethon, I’ll let you know.

CNNI Weekends: Needs Improvement

CNN International is quite frankly one of the better news channels out there.  But it is a commercial operation and thusly, needs to make a profit. 

But it has to be said that when CNNI airs on Freeview at the weekend, the only live programmes are 2 editions of World Report at 7pm UK 7 11pm UK, and World Sport at 10.30pm UK.  That’s just 1.5 hours of live programming out of 5 hours.  There’s really not enough live news, especially when you consider that France 24 has 10 minute news bulletins every 30 minutes, all the time, even weekends.

Perhaps the best way for CNN to maximise the programming is to share with CNN Domestic.  Far from ideal, but perhaps a better solution than the over-reliance on taped programming that seems to be the case now.

CNN Abu Dhabi opens.

CNN has opened up their new Abu Dhabi broadcast hub, and broadcast their first shows from there.  Amanpour is currently airing a week of programmes from there, and Stan Grant is anchoring a programme called “Prism” every day.

In this video, Stan Grant himself takes us around the new bureau and broadcast hub.

CNN’s Freeview stream: don’t sell hours to others!

When CNN started on Freeview, they ran from 9pm to 1am.  Not a lot of time for a 24 hour news channel.  Then it got extended to 7pm to 2am, but then they sold on their last two hours to SuperCasino, then to Challenge Jackpot, and now to Rocks & Co. 

Last night, after the best of the Sitaution Room, we got treated to a lesson for broadcasters in why it is not a good idea to sell hours on to other broadcasters, when you already have the programming available to fill it.

Rocks and Co, who are currently timesharing the 7 hour CNNI stream on Freeview, have spent the whole time since midnight showing a very boring loop, stating that Live Auctions will begin at 8am.  Now that’s as well may be, but that’s of no use to us watching on Freeview Channel 84, which will switch off at 2am, 6 hours before the next set of live auctions is due to begin.

If this is going to keep happening then maybe CNN should forget about selling on the 2 hours from Midnight to 2am.  CNBC has all but given up on their 3 hour “Poker Channel Europe” slot, restricting it now to Saturdays and Sundays, whilst Asian market coverage gets aired the rest of the week.  Now, CNN should take a leaf out of the CNBC book, and forget completely about selling the two hours after Midnight.  Just air CNN Today on Freeview, and you’ll not only fill the hours, but when the US President speaks to the US, usually at 8pm ET, you’ll be on air in the UK for people to watch, instead of tuning to Sky or Cable.

Tonight’s after midnight debacle should be a lesson to all those who think broadcasting is about making money.  Nobody will have stayed tuned in during these two hours.  They will have tuned away almost immediately, because there was nothing to show.  Content is still king, and like it or not, will forever be king.  That’s why so many people are watching internet shows and podcasts, reading blogs and tweets, because that’s where the content is.

CNNI starts, slowly, with Breaking News

CNN International got off to a slow start this evening.

It took them 10 minutes to actually activate the video feed, and another 6 minutes to get sound going. But there was breaking news out of New York to greet us, about a plane that had crashed into the Hudson River. I say it crashed but to be honest it looked like it had landed, cos it was intact.

CNN International had joined their domestic network for coverage from Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room. Meanwhile BBC News had joined BBC World at about 9.30pm for continuing breaking news. Coverage was presented by BBC World's Mike Embley and BBC News Channel's Sophie Long. They stayed with BBC World's breaking news coverage from N8, whilst N6 produced the BBC News at Ten for BBC1 viewers only.

Sky News had dropped their 15 minutes every 15 minutes bulletins for breaking news coverage as well.

At the time I write this, CNNI is still carrying CNN domestic coverage, whilst BBC News Channel is continuing to carry BBC World News for the moment. Sky News is continuing their breaking news coverage as well. CNN.com is also carrying coverage online right now as well.

CNNI arrives on Freeview

CNN International has finally arrived on Freeview. Officially it launches at 9pm tonight with Back Story, followed by World Sport, World News Europe, The Situation Room and CNN Today, ending it's broadcast day at 1am.

Even though the EPG slot on 84 is properly there, there is as yet no MHEG for the channel. Also, there is an interesting note. It lists the channel as "CNN" not CNNI. Now, whether this means anything at all, especially since the channel is listed as CNN on Sky's EPG and has been for some time, is anyone's guess. But here's mine.

CNN has been making less use of the CNN International name for a while, and more and more reference to the channel only as CNN. Perhaps they intend to phase out the International part and have it seem like one CNN across the world. Either that or out of CNN International will come regional versions of CNN for each part of the world. Heck, they're almost there already. It wouldn't take much more to get to that point.

We will see in time, but first, we'll see how they launch at 9pm tonight. With Back Story being the first programme, I get a sense it will get mentioned by host Michael Holmes.

New channel arrives... but it's not CNNI...

...at least not yet. Channel 48 has seen the addition of SuperCasino.

SuperCasino has been airing every night at 11pm on Nuts TV. Now it seems to be moving to a channel of its own.

This question how long the CNNI slot will be and what times it will air. 9pm-1am seemed to be a bad set of times for CNNI. However, maybe a 7pm-11pm slot, which is regarded as EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) primetime, is looking more likely.

This would tie in with information being reported on various forums about changes to CNNI's EMEA evening schedule. Perhaps the Freeview channel will be used to highlight the schedule. We shall soon see. It will not be long now. We should have a clearer picture by the end of Friday.

CNNI World News and CNN's Out In The Open swap studios!

CNN Observations reports that CNN International's World News, presented this time by Isha Sesay, came from the CNN domestic newsroom, whilst CNN domestic's Out In The Open, came from the CNN International set!

Not sure why this happened, but I have some ideas. Perhaps, they were testing the CNN International set design on a domestic programme. The new CNNI sets in Atlanta, London and Hong Kong have not been well recieved by some viewers, compared with the old designs which had the respective newsrooms as backdrops.

Or they could have been some other strange reason that we do not yet know of. If anybody has any knowledge why this was, or any captures, leave us a comment here at Viewpoint.

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.