Lower third

For the band, see The Lower Third.
For the music venue now known as The Lower Third, see 12 Bar Club.

A screenshot of an Al Jazeera English news programme showing Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in 2011. A lower third at the bottom of the screen identifies him and explains the context of the broadcast.

In the television industry, a lower third is a graphic overlay placed in the title-safe lower area of the screen, though not necessarily the entire lower third of it, as the name suggests.[1]

In its simplest form, a lower third can just be text overlaying the video. Frequently this text is white with a drop shadow to make the words easier to read. A lower third can also contain graphical elements such as boxes, images or shading. Some lower thirds have animated backgrounds and text.

Lower thirds can be created using basic home-video editing software or professional-level equipment. This equipment makes use of video's alpha channel to determine what parts of the graphic or text should be transparent, allowing the video in the background to show through.

  1. ^ Atkinson, Claire (11 August 2008). "The battle for the lower third". Broadcasting & Cable. New Bay Media. Retrieved 7 August 2016.