Bloomberg Makeover

[Joe Capitano 4]

After many years Bloomberg has ditched the "L"-format graphics they had used. Going forward the screen graphics are as follows (Sorry, no screencaps right now):

 

1. The whole right side of the screen is reduced to what I will call "The Bloomberg Box", consisting of the network logo, time and date in Eastern time only, and the Dow. This disappears during commercial breaks, which means for the first time in memory will not be continually present. The Box is taken into account for all full-screens. (NOTE: International shows haven't picked up the new package as yet)

 

2. The stock indices and commodity prices that used to cycle below the time/date box now appear at screen bottom, moving the headline ticker to the line above it. That display is now "rise and fall" animated, cycling every seven seconds. The font used here is the same as before.

 

3. There's some snazzy new animation to bring in the fact boxes and full-screens. Unfortunately, the resolution brings back memories of the 80's Dubner.

 

4. Lower third IDs and story-specific graphics wipe onto the screen a line at a time (a la BBC) going left to right, using a white on black Gothic font. They usually disappear the same way in reverse.

 

5. The dual-line stock ticker is gone.

 

In general, it seems like a decent makeover, but not using higher resolution graphics really stands out like a sore thumb. Hopefully they'll tweak that a bit. But, for those used to the busy screen Bloomberg was known for, this is going to take some getting used to.

[first on fox 18]

http://www.gogomag.com/cgi-bin/tvheads_thisjustin.pl

[clind 2]

Well, here's some captures from this morning (I missed the anchor/reporter/correspondent/expert title L3 though).....

 

Watching some of the network this morning on E!, it's kind of interesting how animation is used (like said in the original post) with the way the L3 grows sideways, then upwards, not to mention the news section doing up and down to replace stories.

[jdcnow 14]

I just hope they will one day do what CNBC already does, and has done for years: integrate the live realtime data with the graphics system. Regular Bloomberg viewers, you know what I'm talking about: How they use what are essentially screenshots of their own computers to display the live data...

 

(Yes, the charts you see in the background are the charts they throw on the screen and call it information. You don't even know what you're looking at.)

 

One good thing I like about CNBC's live hotboards: They are easy to read, unlike Bloomberg's