MSNBC blows HD…

Well, I called it. And unfortunately I was right. MSNBC blows a golden opportunity to do HD right and instead decides to inundate the viewer with too much graphical clutter. Even FNC cut back on the text boxes that they were using early on. Newscast Studio, which was fed internal test shots of MSNBC’s HD graphics prior to its launching (obviously since Hall hasn’t been on the air yet today so where did that grab of her come from?) likes the graphic overload. I don’t see why. If it’s important enough to put on the screen it should be important enough to put on the SD version of the screen. But that would put networks in a bind because nobody wants to be seen as doing a Bloomberg (of a few years ago when Bloomberg had a ton of graphics and a teeny tiny video picture). But then MSNBC has already tried that route…

This package was put in during the Rick Kaplan regime and was removed shortly after Kaplan was. But the point is, putting all that graphical clutter on the screen has already been tried. And it failed. Nothing presented in the screens Newscast Studio presented would be considered “critical” information. The schedule for Lockup and Caught on Camera? The Weather? It’s bad enough that CNN chooses to bombard HD viewers with little weather graphics outside the SD range of its HD broadcast for American Morning. This is worse.

For business channels like FBN and CNBC, yes, you have so much information to give the viewer you need the boxes. Cable News, however, seems to be more preoccupied with giving fluff or free advertising to its programs when it does vertical text boxes. FNC’s the Live Desk is a great example of this with its “What we’re watching” section. If it’s important enough to watch, why aren’t you talking about it right now (though, admittedly, FNC isn’t using its HD space for this but its SD space)? CNN never embraced them at all. They did it the right way from the start, American Morning’s weather overload nonwithstanding. FNC is moving away from them. But MSNBC is embracing them full throttle.

It’s unfortunate for MSNBC because its graphic package is in almost every other respect a very well thought out and slick design.

What I want to see is Primetime in HD. Do they drop the boxes for Olbermann and Maddow?