darcyh wrote:

I hope I am wrong, but have suspected that most local TV newscasts (I am thinking about those 6 o'clock TV stations in Ontario) are not really live, but recorded in advance. 

Many of the members of this board are far more knowledgeable than I, perhaps you could answer this.

Thanks

Dave 

As far as far as I know, in my 25 years+ in TV news, we never pre-recorded anything (well, except the reporter stories, which needed to be edited before they got to air to whittle down the clips and the footage to around 90 secs.) Going live also means you can adjust to whatever happens, such as if a cop gets shot or there's a disaster in the city. 

The only time I can think of a show would be "recorded" is when CFTO delays its 6 o'clock news for a sports overrun, even as it goes live on CP24. But it's usually only a few minutes and you can always tell (a clock tells you the live hit time and if it's 15 minutes out, you'll know.)

I know some network news intros are pre-recorded so they can be properly edited. But the show is live.  

And The Canadian Press top of the hour newscasts you hear on dozens of stations at night and on weekends are also slightly pre-recorded, about 15 minutes early, so they can feed it out to the subscribers by satellite. Not all of them start i at exactly the top of the hour, so getting it out early lets stations that are automated play it slightly early or late, depending on their needs. But it's not hours old. 

Other than that, pre-recorded news is almost an oxymoron. Or at least it should be.

Except after you read this.

RadioActive wrote:

darcyh wrote:

I hope I am wrong, but have suspected that most local TV newscasts (I am thinking about those 6 o'clock TV stations in Ontario) are not really live, but recorded in advance. 

Many of the members of this board are far more knowledgeable than I, perhaps you could answer this.

Thanks

Dave 

As far as far as I know, in my 25 years+ in TV news, we never pre-recorded anything (well, except the reporter stories, which needed to be edited before they got to air to whittle down the clips and the footage to around 90 secs.) Going live also means you can adjust to whatever happens, such as if a cop gets shot or there's a disaster in the city. 

The only time I can think of a show would be "recorded" is when CFTO delays its 6 o'clock news for a sports overrun, even as it goes live on CP24. But it's usually only a few minutes and you can always tell (a clock tells you the live hit time and if it's 15 minutes out, you'll know.)

I know some network news intros are pre-recorded so they can be properly edited. But the show is live.  

And The Canadian Press top of the hour newscasts you hear on dozens of stations at night and on weekends are also slightly pre-recorded, about 15 minutes early, so they can feed it out to the subscribers by satellite. Not all of them start i at exactly the top of the hour, so getting it out early lets stations that are automated play it slightly early or late, depending on their needs. But it's not hours old. 

Other than that, pre-recorded news is almost an oxymoron. Or at least it should be.

Except after you read this.

CKWS Kingston and CHEX Peterborough have been pre-taping their 11 p.m. newscasts as largely rerolls of the supper hour newscasts for years now and the 5:30 p.m./6:30 p.m. reroll newscasts do have an unnatural feel as though the segments are pre-taped and cut together. After all, they only have one anchor doing both supper hour newscasts for the two cities' stations anyway after laying off the Kingston anchor a couple years back.

Thanks for the information. It is appreciated.