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: chris - DTV - 23-02-2023

(23-02-2023, 05:13 PM)chris Wrote:  Wouldn’t a 91-year-old be more likely to watch the 6 o’clock news than where his death will be covered amply? 

I think we should watch the tone in this thread. A TV channel is changing its format, rightly or wrongly. The world keeps spinning.

I think that broadly on this forum (and its predecessors) there is a tendency to forget the absolute gulf in reach of network bulletins and news channels. The BBC News channel's better-performing hours (on an average news week) only get into the 100-150k bracket, while the BBC News at Six typically reaches 4-5m viewers. They are really incomparable beasts - literally orders of magnitude apart.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - London Lite - 23-02-2023

As much as I liked Motty as a broadcaster, I didn't go to linear tv channels to find out more. I read the articles on the BBC News and Sky News app, then there was a mention on the sports bulletins during Simon Mayo's show on Greatest Hits Radio.

I'm not a young person either and yet I didn't switch to a news channel as I found the other platforms were enough to inform me.

There was a time I'd watch rolling news all day, but it's the internet or the network bulletins on BBC One that grab my attention.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - Stockland Hillman - 23-02-2023

(23-02-2023, 07:04 PM)all new phil Wrote:  

(23-02-2023, 04:41 PM)Newsroom Wrote:  Unless you're 91 like my aunt! 

Why do you even bother replying with such drivel. Open your eyes please.

It’s not really my problem that your mindset is so fixed that you can’t see anything beyond the status quo. 

As others have said, that age group is perfectly well served elsewhere.

Actually,  the 16-24 group who use online more than BBC News channel Are the ones best served elsewhere.

The 45+ group use the channel more than individual online sources by far. They also pay towards the £3 billion pound of BBC tax revenue and are entitled to receive a service appropriate for their needs in the format and medium of overwhelming choice - broadcast TV content on a big screen

Ofcom's news consumption report is a better foundation on the topic than BBC spin. 

The world over, news providers may launch online services , but the best performing are linear - online recreations of the classic news channel formats like CBS News/Citys.   The fastest growing video sector isn't SVOD like Netflix or BVOD like iplayer,it's FAST channels - that behave like linear TV with targeted ads for higher revenue

The current BBC strategy looks  like a toxic combination of  decade out of date market analysis  and a senior staff antipathy towards huge parts of its traditional audience.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - ALV - 23-02-2023

Is Newswatch produced using the NC budget? I'm surprised it hasn't been axed yet while every other NC produced programmes got chopped... Is the programme part of some license fee obligation?

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chris - chris - 23-02-2023

(23-02-2023, 08:18 PM)ALV Wrote:  Is Newswatch produced using the NC budget? I'm surprised it hasn't been axed yet while every other NC produced programmes got chopped... Is the programme part of some license fee obligation?

It was launched off the back of the failings around the Hutton inquiry. So although not a written down obligation, it would cause a bit of a stink if axed I suspect. 

Not that it truly holds the place to account. It’s just a tick-boxing exercise really.

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RE: chris - Stockland Hillman - 23-02-2023

(23-02-2023, 05:30 PM)DTV Wrote:  

(23-02-2023, 05:13 PM)chris Wrote:  Wouldn’t a 91-year-old be more likely to watch the 6 o’clock news than where his death will be covered amply? 

I think we should watch the tone in this thread. A TV channel is changing its format, rightly or wrongly. The world keeps spinning.

I think that broadly on this forum (and its predecessors) there is a tendency to forget the absolute gulf in reach of network bulletins and news channels. The BBC News channel's better-performing hours (on an average news week) only get into the 100-150k bracket, while the BBC News at Six typically reaches 4-5m viewers. They are really incomparable beasts - literally orders of magnitude apart.

OFCOM  report reach of BBC One news as 53% in 2022 down from 62% in 2018 (UK 16+) The BBC News channel reach is 24% down from 26% over same period.

So comparisons of individual shows isn't really a useful fact.  Using phase 'orders of magnitude' is misleading ; and far from different beasts. More doberman and a staffie

It's notable the scheduled,fixed, inflexible bulletins suffer from a far faster fall in audience than rolling content.  Constant the developed world all over. Netflix etc eat primetime viewing but a substantial audience still goes 'home' to linear around that viewing.

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RE: BBC Breakfast - Independent - 23-02-2023

(23-02-2023, 11:10 AM)DTV Wrote:  One thing that could really benefit the new channel is a return of proper News in Brief segments. As both channels have slowed down in pace over the years, they've become less common - particularly on the News channel. Having 'Around the World' in brief sections during the first half-hour could allow more of the world to feel covered, with you having an additional UK in Brief section during the World ad break.

WN currently has a 1-minute break at around :15 and a 3-minute break after the weather at :27. They should make each of those breaks 2 minutes so that the first break of the hour could have a longer UK in Brief segment or fit in a short package.

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LargelyALurker - LargelyALurker - 23-02-2023

(23-02-2023, 09:47 PM)Stockland Hillman Wrote:  

(23-02-2023, 05:30 PM)DTV Wrote:  I think that broadly on this forum (and its predecessors) there is a tendency to forget the absolute gulf in reach of network bulletins and news channels. The BBC News channel's better-performing hours (on an average news week) only get into the 100-150k bracket, while the BBC News at Six typically reaches 4-5m viewers. They are really incomparable beasts - literally orders of magnitude apart.

OFCOM  report reach of BBC One news as 53% in 2022 down from 62% in 2018 (UK 16+) The BBC News channel reach is 24% down from 26% over same period.

So comparisons of individual shows isn't really a useful fact.  Using phase 'orders of magnitude' is misleading ; and far from different beasts. More doberman and a staffie

It's notable the scheduled,fixed, inflexible bulletins suffer from a far faster fall in audience than rolling content.  Constant the developed world all over. Netflix etc eat primetime viewing but a substantial audience still goes 'home' to linear around that viewing.

It would be interesting how many of those 26% who watch the news channel are also part of the 53% who watch news on BBC1?

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RE: chris - DTV - 23-02-2023

(23-02-2023, 09:47 PM)Stockland Hillman Wrote:  OFCOM  report reach of BBC One news as 53% in 2022 down from 62% in 2018 (UK 16+) The BBC News channel reach is 24% down from 26% over same period.

So comparisons of individual shows isn't really a useful fact.  Using phase 'orders of magnitude' is misleading ; and far from different beasts. More doberman and a staffie

It's notable the scheduled,fixed, inflexible bulletins suffer from a far faster fall in audience than rolling content.  Constant the developed world all over. Netflix etc eat primetime viewing but a substantial audience still goes 'home' to linear around that viewing.

The Ofcom news reach report is based off a survey with a fairly vague question that doesn't refer to how regularly you use a service. As somebody who works a lot with public opinion data, I would say that it is not the best indicator of regular usage of a service compared to the more rigorous BARB data. The BBC Annual Report using such data gives an average reach figure (defined as using the service for at least 15 minutes in a week) for the BBC News channel of 10%. Perhaps order of magnitude is a bit wide in terms of overall usage, but fundamentally the least-watched BBC One bulletin (News at One) still brings in on average more than 10x the viewers than even the better performing News channel hours. While the BBC News channel audience may be more thinly spread, it is smaller by a significant margin and uses the service less regularly than the audience for network bulletins.

You say that fixed bulletins are suffering - the BBC News at Six is consistently in the most watched 50 programmes each week and is not infrequently in the top 10 programmes. Its viewing figures this year average at 4.3m, admittedly down from 5.0m in the same period five years ago - but a decline rate slower than the rest of TV. And, of course, the 18:30 regional bulletins typically rate even higher. BBC One bulletins remain the most used news service in the country by a considerable margin and even the low reach figure quoted in the Ofcom report is still 20-points higher than the BBC's claimed average weekly reach for the BBC News website.

I stand by the assertion that network bulletins are on a whole other level to the BBC News channel, which is in of itself the better performing of the UK's two news channels. While broadcast television is undoubtedly suffering from lower viewing figures overall, I don't think that news channels are something that will buck the trend - which will only become more problematic as time goes on due to their significant uncuttable costs.

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RE: BBC News Channel/BBC World News Merger - Stockland Hillman - 23-02-2023

Thanks for that Post DTV, it's a genuinely interesting perspective.

I disagree of course. Reported reach is an established metric - all radio data , newspaper readership etc are all measured that way.

BARB is useful, but far from rigorous. Its having to significantly increase panel size as its mot viewing as credible by many media buyers used to real digital user data

News channel's aren't that expensive these days, and can generate significant content for multiplatform use. Particularly where you have a content infrastructure for other outlets

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