BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger (/showthread.php?tid=103)

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - DTV - 11-02-2023

(11-02-2023, 08:23 PM)Alf Stewart Wrote:  

(11-02-2023, 08:19 PM)Kojak Wrote:  That Saturday afternoon shift has been long for as long (ha!) as I can remember. It was Peter Sissons’ regular shift for quite a few years.

Yes, I recall Maxine Mawhinney often doing marathon shifts at the weekend. 10.00-16.00 on a Saturday and 13.00-19.00 on a Sunday if I recall.

And don't forget that this was in the days when weekends weren't simply 30 on/30 off - sometimes with back-to-back full hours.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - m_in_m - 11-02-2023

Whilst a shift might appear to be six hours long it isn't impossible that they are two three-hour long shifts and people are choosing to do double shifts.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - Charles - 12-02-2023

It's a longshot, but I wish they would change the streaming policy with the new channel to make it more accessible. In the US, BBC World News requires a cable subscription and is not available on YouTube like Sky News, Al Jazeera, and many others. Yes, there are the PBS simulcasts too, but those are not always easy to track down, and IME, most stations air BBC bulletins on a tape delay, sometimes by several hours.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - bakamann - 12-02-2023

(12-02-2023, 08:25 AM)Charles Wrote:  It's a longshot, but I wish they would change the streaming policy with the new channel to make it more accessible. In the US, BBC World News requires a cable subscription and is not available on YouTube like Sky News, Al Jazeera, and many others. Yes, there are the PBS simulcasts too, but those are not always easy to track down, and IME, most stations air BBC bulletins on a tape delay, sometimes by several hours.

Even during important or breaking news stories, BBC seems to refuse to stream it on free platforms.

ABC News Australia carried the Queen's funeral special program, but was forced to stop their free YouTube stream while its airing because its a BBC-produced program.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - chaose - 12-02-2023

(12-02-2023, 08:25 AM)Charles Wrote:  It's a longshot, but I wish they would change the streaming policy with the new channel to make it more accessible. In the US, BBC World News requires a cable subscription and is not available on YouTube like Sky News, Al Jazeera, and many others.

I may be wrong here, but I think this might be part of the original distribution deals with cable giants like Comcast and Verizon. US cable deals used to be quite exclusive, certainly in the past. I don’t know when the contracts were signed exactly, but there’s a good chance there’s a stipulation forbidding the BBC from offering the signal OTT in the US.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - Charles - 12-02-2023

(12-02-2023, 11:50 AM)chaose Wrote:  

(12-02-2023, 08:25 AM)Charles Wrote:  It's a longshot, but I wish they would change the streaming policy with the new channel to make it more accessible. In the US, BBC World News requires a cable subscription and is not available on YouTube like Sky News, Al Jazeera, and many others.

I may be wrong here, but I think this might be part of the original distribution deals with cable giants like Comcast and Verizon. US cable deals used to be quite exclusive, certainly in the past. I don’t know when the contracts were signed exactly, but there’s a good chance there’s a stipulation forbidding the BBC from offering the signal OTT in the US.

I think that's exactly why. That's also why NBC and Fox have set up their own, new streaming channel, yet their longtime MSNBC and FNC remain on cable only. It just seems like a mistake that the BBC is ignoring the streaming world and cordcutters and instead is doubling down on traditional distribution methods.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - DTV - 12-02-2023

(12-02-2023, 09:02 PM)Charles Wrote:  I think that's exactly why. That's also why NBC and Fox have set up their own, new streaming channel, yet their longtime MSNBC and FNC remain on cable only. It just seems like a mistake that the BBC is ignoring the streaming world and cordcutters and instead is doubling down on traditional distribution methods.

I expect the difference though between NBC and Fox and the BBC is advertising distribution. NBC and Fox's streams will be primarily US in audience and so will have no problem recruiting US advertisers. I don't know if you can do region-specific streams on things like YouTube, so BBC World might have problems gaining US advertisers for a service that is not predominantly American. Given how comparatively lucrative US advertising is, I doubt the BBC would want to undercut their cable partners if they can't get the same US advertising spend without them.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - Radio_man - 13-02-2023

Here's an interesting article on the BBC's current woes from the New Statesman. There's also a couple of paragraphs on the World & NC merger, that I've quoted below.

https://www.newstatesman.com/the-weekend-report/2023/02/mutiny-bbc-everyone-has-left-journalism-richard-sharp 

Quote:The merger of the news channels has caused the most upset, as more than a dozen established presenters have vied for five jobs. “The mood among the two teams is on the floor,” said one BBC insider. “People who’ve worked there for decades have never known it to feel bleaker.” The interview process included screen tests in which presenters were filmed in a clip studio, likened by one source to a “broom cupboard”, and tested on their ability to deal with breaking news while operating an autocue with a foot pedal. One source described it as a “sham” and “unrealistic”, as well as a strange way to judge people who have been presenting live news for years. Another said that staff on the BBC News channel felt “devastated and gaslit” after most of the presenter roles went to World News journalists. What was presented as a merger felt more like a closure of the domestic channel. The same source suggested the target audience of the newly combined news channel would be wealthy people living outside the UK. “Where does this leave the UK audience who want to have the tax affairs of Nadhim Zahawi and the interference of Richard Sharp properly interrogated?” they said. “The UK taxpayer is being f***ed over, frankly.”

One BBC television news insider said: “We are handing the audience to our competitors on a plate. You only have to look at the viewing figures for late evening now that we’ve got rid of the newspaper review – they have collapsed.” Sky News has had a ratings boost for its rival paper review on weekday nights. GB News, the upstart right-wing news channel, is also making gains. Figures from Barb, which measures TV audiences, shared with the New Statesman show that the average prime-time audience gap between the BBC News channel and GB News was more than 100,000 in January 2022. Last month that gap had narrowed to 40,000. News Corp’s TalkTV, meanwhile, has landed headline-generating interviews with Cristiano Ronaldo, Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson.

Regarding 'The Papers', I always wondered why Christian Fraser or whoever is presenting 'The Context' couldn't stay on to do it for the NC - just axing it altogether when it was clearly a popular part of the NC evening schedule was very short sighted, and now the NC's competitors are benefiting as a result.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - Stuart - 13-02-2023

(13-02-2023, 04:27 PM)Radio_man Wrote:  Regarding 'The Papers', I always wondered why Christian Fraser or whoever is presenting 'The Context' couldn't stay on to do it for the NC - just axing it altogether when it was clearly a popular part of the NC evening schedule was very short sighted, and now the NC's competitors are benefiting as a result.

It's sad for the viewers, but more so for the staff involved. All the changes must create a very disturbing and distruptive working environment.

As for the paper review, the likes of Andrew Pierce and Kevin Maguire seem to rock up anywhere to do it as a duo, and can't cost that much as a DTL pairing, although they turn up together in the studio on GMB in the mornings for probably the price of a taxi and a breakfast.

These days, you're lucky to even get a quick glance of the front pages for 20 seconds at the end of Newsnight.

If you starve a service of funds and kick it in the head for long enough, it will die naturally. Perhaps the end result will just be a BBC international news channel, with domestic input only on BBC One.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - News76 - 13-02-2023

And the whole thing will not end well at all for UK News. (and that's regardless of whether World makes a profit or not).

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