News Videos for YouTube

The cold-open bulletin: eight seconds of broadcast before your actual video starts.

The news cold open is one of sketch comedy's most reliable structures: the video starts not with you, but with a broadcast — sting, banner, a headline typing out the premise — and then cuts to the actual content, which now has stakes. 'BREAKING: Local man attempts to build a deck with no experience. We go live to the scene.' Cut to you, holding a drill wrong. Breaking News Maker produces that open as a 1920×1080, 60fps MP4 in the native 16:9 broadcast shape — drop it at the head of your timeline and the sketch begins mid-story.

It earns its place beyond sketches. Video essayists cut to a bulletin as a rhetorical beat — the mock-news frame is a clean way to summarize 'the discourse' before dissecting it. Channels with recurring segments give each one a broadcast open with its own station branding via the custom builder — the channel bug becomes your channel's name, and the ticker teases the episode. Because everything renders in-browser in moments, the bulletin can be written in the edit, exactly when you discover the cut needs one.

What you get

Native 16:9 at 1080p

1920×1080 at 60fps — the same shape and smoothness as the rest of your timeline, so the cutaway doesn't announce itself as an asset.

The cold-open structure

Sting, banner, typed premise, cut to content: the bulletin does your exposition in eight seconds and hands the video back to you with momentum.

Cutaway-ready

For essays and commentary: a bulletin summarizing the situation is a scene change, a breather and a joke in one shot.

Your channel as a station

The custom builder puts your channel's name on the bug and your colors on the graphics — recurring segments get consistent broadcast branding.

Written in the edit

In-browser rendering means a new bulletin is minutes away — write the headline the moment the timeline tells you it needs one.

How it works

  1. 1

    Write the premise as a headline

    The cold open works when the headline states the video's premise with total broadcast seriousness — the cut to reality is the joke.

  2. 2

    Dress the scene

    Pick a station (or your custom one), put a relevant photo or clip behind the graphics, load the ticker with secondary gags.

  3. 3

    Export and cut it in

    Download the 16:9 MP4 and place it at the head of the edit — or wherever the essay needs to 'go live'.

Frequently asked questions

What resolution do exports come in?

16:9 exports render at 1920×1080, 60fps, as MP4 (with a WebM fallback in browsers without MP4 encoding) — a standard 1080p asset for any editor.

Can I make a recurring segment intro?

Yes — build your station once in the custom builder (colors, banner, your channel's bug), keep the project, and swap the headline and ticker per episode. Consistent branding is what makes a segment feel like a segment.

Is the footage clear for monetized videos?

The graphics, animation and synthesized sting are generated by the tool for your use — there's no third-party footage inside. Your backdrop media and what your headline says are, as ever, your responsibility.

How long can the bulletin be?

Exports are 8-second clips — sized as an open or cutaway, not a full fake newscast. For a longer bit, export multiple bulletins ('we return to our top story…') and cut between them.

Related tools

Try it now — free to start

Open the editor, type your first headline and watch the bulletin animate instantly — then sign in to export.

Open the editor