Has the new look BBC News overtaken Sky?

listen to ‘BBC News vs Sky News’ on Audioboo

The original BBC Broadcasting House in central London.

It was only last month when the BBC News Channel was aesthetically revamped and, more significantly, relocated over four miles east from the BBC Television Centre at Wood Lane to the newly revamped BBC Broadcasting House near Oxford Circus.

Yet the transformation of the television news output from the BBC has been very clear to see. The new set doesn't feel so isolated any longer. The previous set in the west of London was frankly dull and very boring. The new set gives me, the viewer, an impression that there is some form of activity definitely taking place in what is now the "biggest newsroom in Europe". The news has livened up at the BBC once again.

As far as the content is concerned, not much has changed apart from the fact that a brand new extended newspaper review programme has been introduced nightly at 10:30pm and 11:30pm.

There is no doubt that the newsroom at Broadcasting House is absolutely enormous. Every hour, the channel takes deep pride in showing off it's brand new facilities to the whole nation, showing journalists and other BBC News staff concentrating deeply on their computer screens, quite probably researching content for the news, editing footage for news packages and doing other related activities.

I was lucky to go and see the building for myself at this time last year. Sadly, it wasn't fully operational but there's no doubt that I will want to head down south again to go and see the place being brought to full life. Nevertheless, the part of visiting Broadcasting House now that excites me the most is that anyone can actually watch the news as it broadcasts live from the public café.

Sky News underwent a slight revamp it it's on screen graphics nearly three years ago. Yet it's own set remained more or less the same. I've also noticed that Sky News has become less interactive than before prompting the question - is it time for Sky to play catch up with the BBC once again as far as news output is concerned?