How to Make a News Ticker for a Video

Step by step

1. 1

   Build the bulletin from parts

   News Ticker is the running strip along the bottom. Breaking News is for the one story that interrupts the programme, and Headline Bar is the steady lower third while a reporter talks. Weather Strip and Stock Ticker cover the regular segments that follow the main stories.

2. 2

   Fill in the copy

   News Ticker takes up to 12 Headlines, Title for the clock panel and Subtitle for the live chip, plus Speed. Breaking News uses Subtitle as the kicker and Title as the headline. Stock Ticker reads Labels and Values: negative numbers use Secondary, positive ones use Accent. Replace the sample text before exporting.

3. 3

   Plan around the exit

   Tickers default to 15 seconds, Headline Bar and Weather Strip to 7.5, Breaking News to 5, and all can run to 60. All five animate out at the end, so set Duration to the segment. On 9:16, shorten Title on Breaking News, and use Position and Size to fit it.

4. 4

   Export over the picture

   These graphics run over live footage, so all five start transparent. WebM with alpha suits CapCut, OBS and most Resolve systems. In Premiere Pro or After Effects, WebM needs a plugin, so export a PNG sequence. MP4 would hide the picture behind a solid background.

5. 5

   Build the stack in the timeline

   In Premiere Pro, use File > Import, select the first frame, tick Image Sequence, and place the ticker on the top video track, with Headline Bar on the track below it. In DaVinci Resolve, drag each frames folder into the media pool and set the rate in Clip Attributes.

Where it is used

• Independent news commentary

  A solo commentator recording at a desk, with Headline Bar naming each story as it comes up and News Ticker running other items underneath to give the show a newsroom structure.

• School and community broadcasts

  A school announcements show or local community programme using Weather Strip and a ticker of dates and notices, with no graphics operator or broadcast switcher in the room.

• News scenes in fiction

  A short film cutting to a fictional bulletin on a television in the background, where Breaking News and the crawl deliver plot details without another scene of dialogue.

Presets

5

Default duration

5 to 15 seconds, up to 60

Headlines per ticker

Up to 12

Aspect ratios

16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5

Which format should you export?

Transparent WebM for tickers, banners and headline bars, which all have to run over live pictures.

Format

MP4 · WebM · PNG sequence

Alpha

WebM or PNG sequence

Resolution

720p to 8K

Aspect

16:9 · 9:16 · 1:1 · 4:5

License

Commercial use included

Three tips that make it look intentional

• Scroll slowly: the ticker is read on a phone more often than a TV.
• Reserve the breaking banner for one story per video.
• Keep headline bars to a single clause so they fit at every aspect ratio.

Three things people get wrong

• Scrolling a ticker faster than it can be read at a glance.
• Using a breaking banner on a story that is not breaking, which spends the convention for nothing.
• Writing a headline that runs past the end of the bar and truncates.

Frequently asked