Innovation at heart of Euronews strategy
October 8, 2013
Colin Mann @ MIPCOM
To mark its 20th anniversary, Euronews is getting a fresh new look thanks to a complete reworking and redesign of its presentation. Michael Peters, Euronews’ CEO also confirmed the service’s strategic goal to transform the company into a global media group offering “the right content, in the right place, at the right time.” To that end, he revealed a range of innovations and product launches.
Starting on October 8th at 14:00 CET, viewers will have seen the new on-air look of Euronews broadcasts. The new look brings with it a livelier pace, a rationalised screen layout and a return to the dominant codes of international news, designed to confirm Euronews’ status as the continent’s leading news channel.
The new look will also help spotlight live coverage and breaking news. The on-screen readability of the channel’s programmes has been improved through repeated colour codes which create visual indicators for viewers.Additionally, in an effort to enhance the service’s global credentials, a world clock will be displayed. Euronews is taking advantage of the change to add a revolving clock showing the time in 65 of the world’s largest cities. The world clock, present on all of Euronews’ signals, is a global first for a news channel.
Euronews says the new look is more than just a change of graphics, suggesting it is the first step in a complete transformation of the channel and all of its digital platforms. The new design is in the development stage and will be launched at the end of 2014, in conjunction with the inauguration of the new world headquarters, currently being built in Lyon.
A number of roll-outs will also broaden the availability of the channel, Euronews becoming the first European medium to become available on Google Glass, in partnership with the start-up Watchup. The beta version of the app will be launched on Google Glass on 19 October 2013. The 8,000 owner/testers of Google Glass in the United States will have high-quality access to the news produced by Euronews (videos and text) in English, starting on 19 October, when Watchup for Glass will be presented at the annual conference of the Online News Association in Atlanta.
The first Google Glass devices will be available to the public in the US some time during 2014.
Euronews has also joined social magazine Flipboard a premium partner, publishing its news feeds in 10 languages on Flipboard, offering the channel’s perspective, trademark impartiality and independence to the millions of readers of the world’s first social magazine. Flipboard allows people to create their own intuitively designed magazine which aggregates news and other content from major media sources and social networks. In addition, Euronews has launched four mobile apps for BlackBerry and Nokia.
Euronews continues to develop its ‘Euronews’ and ‘Euronews Express’ apps for mobile devices, smartphones and tablets and has secured two new agreements signed with BlackBerry and Nokia.