Director's Alert: NBC "Nightly News" in HD Premieres 3/26/07

We were the first to post this information several weeks ago here on the "Director's Cut Blog."

But today, we hear "officially" from the network that NBC News is indeed becoming the first network evening newscast available across the country in HDTV, beginning next Monday, March 26th at 6:30 PM on WKYC.

"Nightly News" will originate from Control Room 1A, the same state-of-the-art HD control room used by the "Today Show." Brian Williams will continue to anchor from "Nightly's" longtime home, Studio 3C in 30 Rock. Working off the model established for "Today" has sped "Nightly News" transition into HDTV. For this purpose, new Sony HDC-1500 HD studio cameras have been installed in 3C.

Brett Holey, director of "Nightly News," says that the program's existing set was built with high definition in mind and looks even better in the new format. There has had to be some tweaking of the opening segment and an upgrade to some graphics.

The program's studio segments will be broadcast in 16:9, with stories appearing in 4:3 with wings. NBC News expects to begin using high definition gear for field acquisition later this year.

If you'd like to read more about NBC's approach to HD for Today and now for Nightly, this link will take you to an article in Broadcast Engineering, which ran in January:

<http://broadcastengineering.com/hdtv/broadcasting_nbc_builds_network/index1.html>

"Nightly News" broke new ground with Brian Williams' Daily Nightly blog and his video blog on msnbc.com, as well the program's streaming video Netcast and free podcast. Moving to HDTV is another step in making it possible for viewers to access the program in more ways and to attract new viewers.

WKYC is proud to join NBC "Nightly News" in offering even more programming for you in HD.... as we "Re-define TV."

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