New CNNi shows to be coming out late Jan next year:

The following will be the lead anchors for the new shows...

Richard Quest: The new lead Business anchor
Becky Anderson: Show linking stories across the world
Fionnula Sweeney: Focussing on one on one interviews and world news
Christiane Amanpour: Show based on forums and round tables with world leaders and high brow interviewees.

There will be new fonts and graphics but the changes will come in slowly to make sure the audience is integrated into the new look rather than experience a quick, stark change.

Pad.

OMG, finally some good news, it's great Richard will be back. Thanks for the info. What about the sets?

^^^

Those are some very exciting leaks. I had heard about Becky's new show ahead of time, and the NY Times announced Christiane Amanpour's program a few weeks ago, but I didn't know about the others. Richard Quest as lead business anchor? He has a great personality about television and is very bright, but I wasn't sure if CNN would be hesitant to feature him after his snafu in Central Park.

We also know that a new nightly show will come out of Abu Dhabi, but who will anchor it-- Hala, John Defterios, or someone new?

Thanks for the leaks, Padstein! And welcome to the forums--we hope you'll stay.

Think that's why they've been introducing him back slowly over the last few months.

There's going to be some movement in terms of sets but all, with the exception of Christiane, will be based in London.

Richard is going to do more reads standing up to give his show more flexibility and a more fluid dynamic.

The main theory behind Becky's show is that while Becky is the anchor she is used as a lynch pin between the reporters around the world - giving a more free flowing and less formulaic output.

It sounds interesting that Intl is going more personality driven like US.
Are these going to be evening shows in Europe?

And I know I'm outnumbered here - if I were Charles Hodson I'd tell CNN to stick it. To make that clown the lead business anchor over Hodson is a travesty. I haven't missed his shows being off one bit since the bust and turn the station when he is on cause just hearing his voice makes me think of ropes and things...

Good for Fionnula. She's always been an under used talent.

I would consider it an injustice if Charlie Hodson was thrown overboard but would not if Max Foster was. Used to think Charles was yardstick for boringness but he's actually not and he comes across as someone who loves his job

Don Riddell as a news anchor is ridiculous in my view, what dues has he paid? If CNN sent him to Africa or Pakistan or Burma and let him sink or swim fair enough but just to plop him down in the anchors seat is a travesty, an absolute travesty.

I read in the NYT article that this lineup is intended to be aligned to primetime in the EMEA area.

As I said in an earlier post, CNN is perhaps returning to a single-feed but have left-out that it is recentering its time based on European time.

I always thought that CNN's best business anchor was Todd Benjamin (even though he didn't have the best on-air presence), but it seems as if he's stepped down from anchor to occasional analyst. I haven't watched too much of Hodson, but he seems to know what he's talking about.

I don't know what to make of Quest. He's very entertaining, but will he be a good lead business anchor? He did had some great insight in early October during the financial collapse, but that's all the business reporting I've seen from him that truly impressed me.

I agree with Houston on Fionnuala. I love seeing her on Int'l Correspondents. I look forward to seeing that every weekend. It sounds like her new nightly show will be formatted like that; is that correct, Padstein? If so, I'd definitely tune in to see that.

Spitfire, I don't know what to make of Don's position. At first, I assumed that Don was flagged to fill Owen Thomas' old slot, but I still see him doing sport updates. Don isn't a bad anchor; in fact, he had great chemistry with Monita last week, but I agree with you that he probably doesn't know what it's like to be a field reporter.

But Richard was always great in doing business, in fact that is his main interest, he was a business reporter for BBC then he came to CNN and did BizNews and Business Central. Now that the economy is big news it's not a surprise Richard is back.

Pad, welcome to the board. Could you tell us what will happen with CNN Today London??? Will it change, 1 anchor or 2, what can we expect?

I'm also interested in seeing the expected schedule (in GMT) once all the changes are sorted out.

Merry Christmas you too! Those news are an awesome Christmas present!

I'm not sure if this has been posted here, but I think it plays into some of the reasons for the revamp.

CNN International is to become part of Freeview in 2009.
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008/10/nuts_tv_dropped_from_freeview.html

This became known in late October. The report says CNNI will begin broadcasting on Freeview in January. Don't know when exactly, but you can bet, the changes to the EMEA schedule probably are connected to this move.

CNN originally stands for Cable News Network. Ironic that in Europe, it its FTA and in the UK will be a regular on digital terrestrial TV. In other words, no paid subscription there required. Too bad its US counterpart is still encrypted in the US but CNN/I appears to be FTA. Who would know why?

CNN has always been available for free in the UK all you need is a digibox, CNN is not part of a paid package and to my knowlege never has been, neither is Al Jazeera english or France 24.

The execrable Fox News however and CNBC europe are not available for free in the UK.

I'm sure CNN/I has been free for quite some time but once the service is ready, you only need a TV set recently manufactured to get CNN/I.

I'm still curious why CNN/US is encrypted in North America but CNN/I there isn't. What's even more awkward, I think CNN/US has more ads playing.