Tonight’s Broadcast
EmailExecutive Producer Jon Banner blogs about tonight’s broadcast:
It’s an exciting day in the newsroom. Tonight, we’ll bring you five and a half minutes more of “World News.” There’s no need to adjust your TV -– the extra time is due to a special sponsorship arrangement that allows us to air the broadcast with limited commercial interruptions. We’ll have a single commercial sponsor tonight and for the next three Mondays in April, which means significantly more editorial time each of those days. No one in the newsroom can remember the last time the broadcast had a single sponsor, let alone a single sponsor four times over the course of a month.
We’re going to use the extra time in two ways -– to cover more of the day’s news and to bring you a special series, “Key to the World,” reported by Bill Weir.
We created this series to shine a light on important issues in places that you might not know much about. Bill’s first report is from Kiribati, a nation of 33 islands in the Pacific Ocean that is facing the real effects of global warming. As ocean levels rise, the island nation is slowly vanishing, and the country’s president warns that a mass exodus of its 105,000 residents could come within the next decade. I just watched an early screening of Bill’s piece -– he’s a natural story teller and the pictures that he and producer Drew Millhon captured in Kiribati are truly stunning.
We hope you’ll join us tonight for this special broadcast, and please, as always, feel free to post your comments below.
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My family and I applaud, no, cheer your one commercial break format! Too many commercials that are lasting longer and flashing and screaming more and more have reached the point of pain. The new format has won us over, we’ll be tuning in.
Posted by: V. Smirnoff | April 2, 2007, 7:13 pm 7:13 pm
I loved the special, limited commercial interruption broadcast shown today (Apr. 1, 2007). And, I very much liked the “Key To The World” report. Truly gives you something to think about.
Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Tomás | April 2, 2007, 7:22 pm 7:22 pm
Nicely done story. Regarding the special sponsorship arrangement: I usually bounce among the network newscasts until I land on the first one back from a commercial break, but as long as you continue your policy of limited commercial interruptions, you can count on me as a loyal new viewer.
Posted by: Mike Gaston | April 2, 2007, 8:05 pm 8:05 pm
You are to be congratulated on tonight’s special report. It got to the heart of the issue: people whose lives are deeply affected now by global warming. The comment made by the President of Kiribati when he stated that events were in process and probably could not be stopped in time to save his country and his people was heartwrenching. An entire culture is being lost! It is stories like this one that bring the results of global warming into reality for those of us who continue to doubt.
Posted by: JoAnn | April 2, 2007, 9:30 pm 9:30 pm
I have to give ABC big kudos for the expanded news coverage tonight. I hope it’s a huge success and I hope you can do this every night. I appreciate Pfizer spending what I assume is a huge amount of money to sponsor tonight’s broadcast. See, it worked for me because there was only one commercial to sit through and I actually remembered the sponsor’s name! I also appreciate the content and the two stories that touched me the most – the Edwards family dealing with cancer and the disappearing nation. Keep up the good work, ABC.
PS – what happened to mentioning New York in the opening V.O.? Does that turn off middle America?
Posted by: Shawn Rosvold | April 2, 2007, 9:40 pm 9:40 pm
Congratulations on your new format! What a breath of fresh air. I am so happy to see that at least one American news program is taking the first tentative steps into acknowledging there is a great big world out there where news happens everyday and that there are other perspectives worth listening to with some objectivity. In the past I’ve always had to watch the BBC for this kind of reporting. Good start now keep it going.
Posted by: Pauline Ford-Caesar | April 2, 2007, 10:46 pm 10:46 pm
Thank you for the one commercial format. The news and special report were remembered, even the commercial’s name! Hooray for attempting to lengthen viewers’ short attention span, by extending the reports, and by opening our eyes in “Key to the World.”
Posted by: Phyllis | April 3, 2007, 9:36 am 9:36 am
In 2000, 191 countries signed an agreement known as the Millennium Goals, the first of which is to eliminate global poverty by 2025. I hope that our representatives will uphold this promise made by global leaders.
Posted by: marie2 | April 4, 2007, 6:36 pm 6:36 pm
Your limited commercial broadcast is a breath of fresh air. The prescription Drug commercials are getting to be beyond rediculas. I have just about worn out my mute button.
Posted by: Arnold Rodgers | April 24, 2007, 10:16 am 10:16 am