FNC debuts new lower thirds..
FNC began using new lower thirds this morning. The logo and clock have been lowered a bit. The text is slightly larger. The live bug is down at the bottom. The lower thirds themselves now can animate from the bottom up. I suspect some folks in Secaucus are noticing a similarity in style.
The biggest change, which I didn’t even notice at first, is the U.S. Flag, which had been waving in the upper left corner of the screen since shortly after 9/11 occurred, is gone…
UPDATE: Apparently the flag was seen intermittently at the 9 am hour but according to Johnny Dollar it was gone by 10 am. May be a technical issue…
What idiot decided to remove the flag? They better put it back up there - that’s the one thing that distinguishes Fox from the others. And I’m sure it’s the one thing Fox’s detractors hate about the network. But I’m sure they wouldn’t be watching Fox anyway.
Sorry, enough whining already. Hopefully enough people will complain about this so that the flag gets reinstated.
Comment by Missy — September 20, 2006 @ 12:43 pm
Yeah, I miss the flag too. At first they had it on, alternating with the live bug. But after about an hour it disappeared. It didn’t really look right down in the lower left. Flags are supposed to be flying high, not low.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 20, 2006 @ 12:57 pm
I’ve been thinking for a while that FNC should update its look but this is not the way to do it, this new style looks less professional (a third grader could have come up with it) and worse than CNN and even MSNBC. FNC needs to bring back the flag and go with toned down and sleek look that really shows the quality of the FOX News Channel.
Comment by Gragoo — September 20, 2006 @ 1:08 pm
I think it’s just a big ol’ mess down there. First of all, it’s just so big. Why did they pick those ugly and VERY wide-bodied typefaces? You can’t fit a lot of info down there without scrunching the words really tight and that looks stupid. There’s also these funny margins in the boxes that practically forces them to scrunch the words tighter. At one point this morning, some of the stock numbers were cut off of the right side of the screen. I hate to say it, but it’s almost as if they don’t have professional graphic designers working for them. Does an outside team work on their awesome bumpers and IDs? It seems so.
And I really don’t understand the point of the “LIVE” flashing in and out. If they are going to keep doing that, then leave the little flag (that they had in the 9:00 hour) behind there ALL THE TIME, so there just isn’t a blank spot alternating there. In those screenshots above, you wouldn’t know that they were liveshots because the bug was in the midst of alternating.
Comment by SuperNoxic — September 20, 2006 @ 1:12 pm
AWFUL!
Comment by Terance — September 20, 2006 @ 1:53 pm
They have to leave the LIVE bug and the flag in the upper left corner. It just doesn’t look right anywhere else, and it’s necessary these days when coverage is replayed. I want to know if I’m watching what’s happening now or what happened an hour ago.
As for the typeface, I’ll have to see it in action before deciding.
Comment by OverHere — September 20, 2006 @ 2:18 pm
This is all nitpicking. What people are quarreling about are of no importance. What’s more important is FNC has the same stellar team of anchors and reporters, with unsurpassed coverage 24 hours a day.
Comment by RGL — September 20, 2006 @ 2:27 pm
The channel ID bug seems to include “.COM” in the rotation, in addition to the word “Channel” and the local time.
Comment by Charles — September 20, 2006 @ 2:55 pm
RGL, it was important enough for FNC to make the change. And I know I for one wasn’t “quarreling,” just offering my opinion.
Comment by OverHere — September 20, 2006 @ 2:56 pm
THE FLAG IS BACK, and it’s in the upper left, just as it’s always been!!!!
Our country is under attack in many aspects and it’s just good to see the flag to remind us of what it represents. And I hope the flag remains no matter who resides in the White House.
Comment by Missy — September 20, 2006 @ 3:53 pm
The fonts are all way too big, it feels like I’m watching Senior Citizens News Channel. The only change I like is bumping the FNC logo down, but everything else is way, way overdone.
A lot of the news channels have been simplifying their graphics (see CNN International), but FNC has gone in an entirely different direction and it just looks bad.
Comment by The Man They Call Flane — September 20, 2006 @ 5:21 pm
Who cares about a flag waving in the background. It doesn’t add anything to the content. Not to mention, every single other element that they use on the channel is composed of some sort of RED, WHITE and BLUE. So give it a rest and look at the content. Graphics aside, content is what makes people watch. Oh, and I seriously doubt people are going to stop watching FOX because the lack of a flag. So I say… do away with it and keep it simple.
Comment by Nobody — September 20, 2006 @ 5:32 pm
And if you want a flag.. go outside and look at the flags flying in person… not some CG generated one. They aren’t hard to come by these days! :-) I have one in front of my house. I don’t need FOX to remind me… and if you need FOX to remind you what a great country this is… then there’s a problem with our society. I don’t need, nor do I want some graphics artist at FOX News telling me that this is a good country.
Comment by Nobody — September 20, 2006 @ 5:34 pm
In all honesty, these graphics remind me of some old Fox News Sunday clips from the early ’00s with GIANT Fox News Alert font, and in all honesty, these new graphics are disgusting! Too big, too bold of font, too BIG of font, just purely sickening! Also, new live bug is disgusting in the top left hand corner! Keep the style but redo the font, added some red, return the live bug to the bottom, and it might look half-way decent
Comment by Chris — September 20, 2006 @ 6:00 pm
Also to note, the move of the logo is kind of Sky News-isk, the international sister of FNC
Comment by Chris — September 20, 2006 @ 6:03 pm
Yeah, I was going to say earlier that I do like the style with the “folders” coming out of the right side of the screen. But the text that’s in those boxes is just so big and sloppily put together. Some tweaks just need to be made to the spacing, alignment, and size and it would look okay. It’s just really hard to believe that there’s no one working for that department with an eye for that sort of thing — that’s their job!
Comment by SuperNoxic — September 20, 2006 @ 6:38 pm
It’s a clear mod of MSNBC’s L3’s
Comment by IceMan — September 20, 2006 @ 7:24 pm
These are truly awful. Not as slick as MSNBC’s nor as simple as CNN’s. I hope they go through a few more tweaks until they get it right (by the way I agree that content is more important than graphics changes, but I reserve the right to discuss them).
Comment by Mr A — September 20, 2006 @ 7:31 pm
You guys are right about the font. It’s huge, and there are certainly better fonts availabe (at least on Word). And why does the “lower third” have to take up a third of the screen? Why can’t we have a “lower fifth” or something so that so much of the screen isn’t occupied by printing? It’s good to identify people who are speaking, or maybe a brief synopsis of the topic, but we don’t need an entire third of the screen to reiterate what we’re watching!
Comment by Missy — September 20, 2006 @ 8:01 pm
I have closed captioning on my TVs. I wish they would get rid of the whole thing; and the crawl.
One other option: putting the lower third words there without a solid color background; so that we see the picture in the spaces around the letters and words.
And a question: Any of you reading this notice that MSNBC has issues with taking the “LIVE” logo off when they go to a taped report? They’re usually at least one second late; sometimes as long as 15 seconds. I haven’t noticed this on CNN or FNC.
Comment by erljr — September 20, 2006 @ 8:40 pm
MSNBC’s Director still appears to be key’ing the Live bug in and out manually (as CNN & FOX used to when it became a permanant fixture), but now they (and the one I work for) have an external bug generator that takes on and off automatically with certain sources (i.e. live ones!)
Comment by DFV — September 20, 2006 @ 9:15 pm
H&C and On The Record are using the old L3’s
but they have the new Flag FOX/Live animation.
Comment by IceMan — September 20, 2006 @ 10:21 pm
Don’t understand the fuss over a darn flag over the LIVE bug. Do you need it so you remember what country you live in? Does it make you feel better? It doesn’t serve a purpose. The less clutter on the screen is best.
Comment by Stud — September 20, 2006 @ 11:46 pm
Personally, I don’t remotely care about the flag since the new version with the semi-transparent FOX text …. well, simply sucks. Please, take some notes from Sky and just do a modified version of the bottom banner that used to be down there. Also, graphics have to do with the news in that they present the information, and it may turn a few people off with these bad changes
Comment by Chris — September 21, 2006 @ 12:27 am
Missy: CNN in and around 2004 used to have something closer to a “lower fifth.” Same package as now, just a lot smaller. And, hey!, not surprisingly it really gave CNN a professional look. Unfortunately, Jon Klein didn’t get his perscription renewed for his glasses or something, and they blew up the size Spring ‘05.
Stud: The flag is significant because FNC is the only one who still uses it. It also is fairly symbolic of why FNC has had such success since after 9/11/01. So even though I’m not all that impressed by the graphics so far (I might just get used to it though), it would feel weird for FNC to not have the flag there.
Comment by Coreyback — September 21, 2006 @ 1:13 am
I’m wondering if the new flag animation was just an after thought? It would seem that the new graphics set was actually designed to have the LIVE bug sitting above the Fox News logo.
Comment by F10 — September 21, 2006 @ 5:02 am
ANYTHING the decreases the image of REBECCA GOMEZ is direct from EL DIABLO and should be removed. I’d love to see her dress down Chavez or just, plain old, undress.
Comment by Roger — September 21, 2006 @ 11:59 am
“The fonts are all way too big, it feels like I’m watching Senior Citizens News Channel.”
Um… not to break it to you or anything but … you are.
Comment by Arthur — September 21, 2006 @ 1:13 pm
Much better than the Commie News Network though.
Comment by spiffo — September 21, 2006 @ 7:57 pm
Atleast CNN has a half-way decent way to present information, FNC’s is just too large and too bold. In all reality, if you want, go over to youtube.com and look up Sky News and find some of the newer files (it has a blue scroller, logo in the scoller, white banners). If anything, FNC needs to take some ideas from their international sister and redo their current style with a touch more transparency, a less bold color (maybe one that doesn’t look like back on white), and a font size that isn’t ment for a guy sitting 1 mile away from his television set
Comment by Chris — September 22, 2006 @ 1:26 am