Newsnight - Printable Version
+- Pres Café (https://pres.cafe)
+-- Forum: Pres Café TV and Radio Forums (https://pres.cafe/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: News and Sport Presentation (https://pres.cafe/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Thread: Newsnight (/showthread.php?tid=107)
+- Pres Café (https://pres.cafe)
+-- Forum: Pres Café TV and Radio Forums (https://pres.cafe/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: News and Sport Presentation (https://pres.cafe/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Thread: Newsnight (/showthread.php?tid=107)
RE: Newsnight - DTV - 04-11-2023
(04-11-2023, 10:34 PM)JMT1985 Wrote: What more can BBC News cost cut, until the point we get to either a terrible news service, or axing of other news bulletins - will the BBC News at One get axed, because in 2023, how many at lunchtime actually bother to watch news on TV during our lunch break?It's unlikely they'd axe the News at One as the edition specific costs of one news bulletin when you produce several are fairly small, plus it still rates well for that time of day and counts towards programming quotas that the BBC are obliged to meet. Indeed, given the need to reduce daytime commissioning budgets and the need to fill airtime, it'd make more sense to add extra BBC One news (as per the proposals to extend Breakfast and the News at One) as the small additional costs would be dwarfed by the savings elsewhere.
US networks have never provided a networked national news programme at lunchtime, just a waste of money - maybe BBC One could axe the News at One and save cash there?
The US don't produce lunchtime national news bulletins, but then the major network news schedules are vastly different over there, with far more regional news taking its place - including mid-morning and late-afternoon bulletins. Similarly, US networks produce 'early morning' bulletins that, tenuously barring ITV's long-axed Morning News, don't really have a counterpart in the UK.
RE: Newsnight - Stockland Hillman - 05-11-2023
(04-11-2023, 10:29 PM)DTV Wrote: Good to have a more up-to-date figure - a 50% real budget cut in 15 years is certainly something of an achievement for a similar level of functionality, even if certain production costs have fallen.My understanding is the STV data is for PSB news, so excludes Scotland Tonight and online. The analysts are usually very accurate and trusted, but you understand I can't share specifics.
In terms of News struggling with inflation, I'm just going on the fact that both BBC News channels spent the last decade repeatedly attempting to cut costs - including significant staffing cuts, programming reductions, etc. - and ended up with little real savings (indeed, the BBC News channel's 2022/23 budget was higher in real terms than a decade earlier). Going by few publicly available figures (which are likely less reliable), Sky News also seem to have found it difficult to substantively reduce costs. Though, given the different cost structures involved in news channels, perhaps that's just particular to them - they are notoriously financial black holes, while bulletin news is much easier to do cheaply. It's just very hard to find comparable data for other BBC News programming as they rework the way data is published every few years.
Public data has the entirety of ITV Network and regional news and current affairs (exc Scotland) as costing £120m in 2019
You can see that £8-13m on Newsnight for 300k viewers does raise questions.
Should point out that there is some debate about the ITV spend, as other analysts have suggested its included platform and tech costs that would exist anyway for ITVs regional ad sales
RE: Newsnight - Independent - 05-11-2023
(04-11-2023, 09:09 PM)JMT1985 Wrote: If Newsnight is axed, what is the point of BBC Two? They literally have no BBC 2 produced programmes apart from a few hours in the evening including Newsnight - they may as well shut the whole channel down if they start to axe core BBC 2 daily programming like thisIIRC some forum members mentioned years ago on the previous forums that BBC Three, Four and children's channels should be closed and their content moved to BBC Two as online/streaming continue to grow. BBC Two would be a channel that acts as a 'best of' shows available on the iPlayer, promoting iPlayer programming and etc., which would give BBC Two a new sense of direction and/or purpose.
RE: Newsnight - DTV - 05-11-2023
(05-11-2023, 01:25 AM)Stockland Hillman Wrote: You can see that £8-13m on Newsnight for 300k viewers does raise questions.At £8m, that is around 15-16p per viewer hour, which is higher than BBC Two as a whole at 9p and more than twice as high as the BBC News channel at 7p, so it is, of course, arguably underperforming cost wise. But I think that's still within a justifiable level owing to both its unique nature and PSB value - it is the BBC's only 'broadsheet'-level news and current affairs TV programme left, as well as being the only BBC TV programme that really deals in things like policy analysis. There are still, of course, a few programmes of this ilk on Radio, but I'd argue it's important to have at least one outlet of that type on both mediums.
I don't think it necessarily has to stay wholly as it is - maybe move it to half-an-hour earlier in the evening, with a focus solely on UK news (perhaps giving the BBC's long-form world affairs reporting, i.e., Our World, a network outing to compensate) - but I think that the unique things it does are important to keep somewhere and more important than keeping something newsy in the timeslot - which is why I'd rather they axed it outright and reformatted the Ten than turned Newsnight into another talking shop.
RE: Newsnight - chris - 05-11-2023
Newsnight should be the kind of programme that survives in the online world. Appointment to view analysis, intelligent debate and exclusives.
I would much rather they scrapped the UK opt of the news channel (airing the world-focused channel in Britain) and used that saving to keep Newsnight. It has greater PSB value than the dated rolling news format.
RE: Newsnight - JMT1985 - 05-11-2023
(04-11-2023, 10:54 PM)Reith85 Wrote: BBC News at One on BBC One gets 2m viewers and a 40% share daily - it wins its slot by a very, very long distance against all channels at that time. And with 2m viewers on average for each edition, it is by far the most watched programme on any channel between 6am - 4pm on weekdays - and that isn't an exaggeration.
But it does seem it is a bulletin worth dropping to me - 2 million may be the 40% share daily, but most likely that has been dropping for years. A quick news update before 1pm would suit most people and I feel as the 2020s progresses, the lunchtime news on both BBC One and ITV1 will become less and less needed.
RE: Newsnight - AaronTV - 05-11-2023
(05-11-2023, 10:48 AM)JMT1985 Wrote: But it does seem it is a bulletin worth dropping to me - 2 million may be the 40% share daily, but most likely that has been dropping for years. A quick news update before 1pm would suit most people and I feel as the 2020s progresses, the lunchtime news on both BBC One and ITV1 will become less and less needed.
Dropping the most watched program of your entire daytime schedule would be the very definition of insanity.
The fact that it remains the most watched program during daytime by some margin is a testament to the fact that there is a significant demand for it.
I would also imagine that live news is far more cost effective than daytime drama or factual, for example - hence the decision to axe Doctors and reportedly extend the News at One.
ITV extending their Evening News has also been highly successful for them, filling x5 30 minute slots a week for very little cost, whilst actually improving on the slot average in comparison to the ‘filler’ programs that would otherwise be produced.
How would BBC One dropping something that is incredibly popular and cost effective for something that is far more expensive and much less popular benefit, well, anyone?
RE: Newsnight - Andrew - 05-11-2023
With ITV now airing more ‘network’ news than the BBC, I imagine there will be some at the BBC who are not happy with this situation.
Also the news channel is regularly not a suitable service to fill the gap between network news bulletins and isn’t even cross promoted anymore
As a result I can see the One and Ten being increased to an hour long, and Newsnight being dropped
RE: Newsnight - DTV - 05-11-2023
(05-11-2023, 10:48 AM)JMT1985 Wrote: But it does seem it is a bulletin worth dropping to me - 2 million may be the 40% share daily, but most likely that has been dropping for years. A quick news update before 1pm would suit most people and I feel as the 2020s progresses, the lunchtime news on both BBC One and ITV1 will become less and less needed.This just makes no real sense on any level.
- Audience-wise, the News at One upholds its share and status as one of the consistently strongest performers on daytime TV, so clearly still has a relative need above what else is on at the same time.
- Money-wise, as I said yesterday, you'd be saving little money from the news budget, but need to fill the slot with likely more expensive alternative programming.
- Requirement-wise, you'd be leaving a gap of near-UK-only BBC News TV programming for a large part of the day and be removing a programme that counts towards several of the BBC's PSB targets for some daytime schedule filler that doesn't.
- Future-wise, news' value on linear TV is higher than that of other genres, so it makes little sense to replace it with what would be non-time specific programming, a significant chunk of which would be repeats.
RE: Newsnight - Reith85 - 05-11-2023
(05-11-2023, 10:48 AM)JMT1985 Wrote: But it does seem it is a bulletin worth dropping to me - 2 million may be the 40% share daily, but most likely that has been dropping for years. A quick news update before 1pm would suit most people and I feel as the 2020s progresses, the lunchtime news on both BBC One and ITV1 will become less and less needed.
With all due respect, I'm struggling to see the logic of this. Yes, audiences are now receiving their news in different ways and they can watch BBC News on the News channel, but the fact remains that Breakfast, the News at 1, 6 and 10 are tentpole, flagship news programmes on BBC One - and, as recent ratings data suggests, on weak schedule days for BBC One, they are often BBC One's highest rated programmes. Why would they dispense with them?
Pretty much all programmes - news or otherwise - are seeing declines in their ratings. But in terms of the BBC News at One on BBC One, it's actually remained pretty consistent over the last few years at 2m+ / 40% share +. That is a remarkable achievement. As I said, between 6am - 5pm, it's regularly the highest rated programme on ANY channel, not just BBC One. And 2m+ is not a peak for a few minutes either: it's the average for 1 - 1:45pm on BBC One. The only other programme that comes close to 2m average is Bargain Hunt before it. Otherwise, take last Monday as a typical example: all programmes on ITV before 4pm were below 1m average. On BBC One, programmes hover above 1m and don't get close to 2m until Bargain Hunt and then over 2m for the News at One, before dipping back to the 1m bracket when the News at One ends at 1:45pm.
That suggests that there is still significant demand for the BBC News at One on BBC One, irrespective of declining ratings across the board. Yes, the BBC often makes questionable decisions but even they would recognise that it would be madness to do away with the highest rated daytime programme on any channel between 6am - 5pm.