New news graphics planned for BBC regions

New graphics for the BBC's regional news programmes will rollout this year following this week's deployment of new presentation systems on BBC News 24, BBC World and the BBC's national news bulletins.

The new graphics are powered by systems from Norwegian firm Vizrt, whose technology is already used by ITN, Sky and CNN.

"Vizrt has begun supplying the BBC with a $0.5 million [approximately £253,000] graphics system as the first part of a four-year nationwide framework agreement signed between the two parties in 2006," the company said in a statement.

"The first live implementation is BBC World and News 24. From the beginning of this week both stations use Vizrt to produce on-screen graphics and captions.

"BBC London is also piloting Vizrt software on behalf of regional stations and will be conducting a soft launch later this month. The roll-out continues during 2007. The framework agreement is designed to facilitate purchasing from a tested and approved supplier and although created primarily for News departments throughout the country, any department or region can take advantage of it.

"As part of the framework agreement, Vizrt UK is also assisting with training and support to help BBC staff adapt to the new software."