qunewsguy

Flat and basic is a common cultural design esthetic across mulitple platforms these days, not just TV. You see it in the evolution of Apple iOS, product packaging, even in interior design and more. Glossiness, bold gradients, and 3D are OUT and actually look pretty dated unless you're talking male-skewing sports content. Simple high contrast colors, natural textures and basic shapes are the way things are going right now.

I'm going to guess they're so low budget at this point that they're doing all the graphics, etc through a TriCaster or something like that.

IMO it's no different than what's being done now for music beds. Times have changed some... synths and drum kits have replaced bass guitars and high hats, but there's nothing in these tracks that stands out as particularly special or adding extra drama to me. If anything, some are so bland and sparse they're actually dragging the energy down (I'm looking at you, WLS). Gari used to deliver "full" and "bed" versions of tracks. Now most companies provide stems to allow local stations to pick their mix with the amount of melody and instrumentation they want.

WVIT finally launched the new look this week.

It's entirely possible they still hold the syndication contracts even if they aren't airing the programs.

CBS affiliate AM crawls are all inserted locally with a "suggested" font only. In addition, morning tickers aren't mandatory and some stations may not have the equipment to put them to air or properly trigger them. Stations were literally sent a PNG base file with font sizes and logo positioning.

Bugs were originally developed to help with accurate ratings tracking. They were intentionally large and obnoxious (to BUG you) and remind you which station you watched when you were writing things in your Nielsen diary. Now that that data collection is automated and digital, there is no need for an overly large bug.

I'm sure some of this is comp time from storm coverage, etc as well. It's normal.

It always seems to me that WKBW's staff is their weak spot. From the little I've seen they seem less polished than the other folks in town... and I mean that from both an on-air and a production standpoint.

That's likely done in-house. Doesn't have any of the telltale flourishes of any of the major firms. By the late 90's AfterEffects was available to most individual stations' art departments.

At least it matches the cheesiness of WABC's graphics now.

These things called "antennas" have been around for oh, about 80 years now for television. Not to mention the plethora of OTT apps. Local TV has always been accessible for free to viewers and always will be.

Local content is more lucrative than syndicated, and what's being shopped around for syndication isn't great.

Same but I think they did it better 20 years ago

I mean it's a nice alternative to the typical Stephen Arnold and Warner Chappell output but still pretty darn bland.