BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) (/showthread.php?tid=412)

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Spencer - 27-03-2024

(26-03-2024, 10:55 PM)FactorFiles Wrote:  Yeah I'm sorry, but just having an alpha channel enables something to easily have the imagery updated behind it. The actual quality of the graphics on top doesn't need to be paired back like this. Unless all the graphic elements are being live rendered for some reason, you could, for example, do exactly the same thing with the old World Today / Regional News style of graphics, and just have the same footage playing back in the background.

Even if you have the text live generated to enable changes to the endboard, you could still have a much more sophisticated video sandwidged between it and the footage in the background.

And several regions did exactly this with the 2008 Lambie Nairn titles for major stories and special editions. Points West with the Weston Super Mare Pier fire is one example that springs to mind.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Rolling News - 27-03-2024

(27-03-2024, 07:56 AM)FactorFiles Wrote:  Out of interest, did the breakfiller have the 'wooshes a thunderclaps' with the story changes? It kind of feels like in this present environment the kind of thing they could just completely abandon if it creates the slightest friction with implementation. But it's a nice touch.

No there was no whooshes and thunderclaps with the story changes, so it does look like it's been dropped.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - FactorFiles - 28-03-2024

Opening titles just failed to play at the TOTH - held for ages on the final headline story with the bed, until finally 'clapping out' back to the desk like it were a 'news in brief' segment. Though it did mean not seeing the News Now title sequence so could be considered an improvement.

/snark

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Omnipresent - 28-03-2024

The BBC has published its Annual Plan. No surprises as far as News is concerned and some rather vague details for the News Channel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/documents/bbc-annual-plan-2024-2025.pdf 

Quote:We will create a new BBC News investigations unit, bringing together existing talent and creating new reporting roles. The unit will work closely with investigations specialists across BBC News – including Current Affairs and the World Service – such as those on Panorama, BBC Eye and File on Four. It will help put our investigative firepower at the heart of BBC News, where it can be seen by the biggest audience possible.

As part of these changes, we will reformat Newsnight, prioritising high-quality, consequential, news-making interviews, discussion and debate that audiences value most. The new programme will have access to experts from across BBC News, who will take part in the conversation and share their expertise and insights.

Quote: The UK feed of the News Channel will continue to serve UK audiences with coverage of major local, regional, national UK and global stories, with daytime and peak hours anchored from London and Salford. The News Channel will also offer even more choice to audiences across the world.

As well as core coverage, the News Channel will further develop its live news, special programming and will make more use of content from our story streaming offer.

Quote:Across 2024/25, we will develop plans to transform the way we work across BBC News. UK story teams will have an increasing focus on digital storytelling and live output, with a reduction in the amount of television packaging. We will use new technologies to deliver our news output more efficiently and more flexibly. We will also continue to review all output to ensure it is delivering value for money and continue to look at where we need to reduce broadcast hours, working with Ofcom to review proposals where appropriate.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Newshound47 - 28-03-2024

It sounds like the UK opts will be cut further and fhe news channel might become even more panel debate filled.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - thePineapple - 28-03-2024

So it seems like the outcry following the announcement of Newsnight's scaling back has not had any impact on plans. A better-connected investigations unit has the potential to be a good thing, but it is certain - to me at least - that it will not make up for it.
The day Newsnight becomes just another interview format will be the day Newsnight dies in my opinion, and that will be very sad indeed.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Daveuk - 28-03-2024

The way it mentions Salford, could we see the UK opt come live from there right up to the 1 o’clock news? Especially with the election approaching.

No idea of the logistics, just thinking out loud.

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - LDN - 28-03-2024

(28-03-2024, 02:11 PM)Omnipresent Wrote:  The BBC has published its Annual Plan. No surprises as far as News is concerned and some rather vague details for the News Channel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/documents/bbc-annual-plan-2024-2025.pdf 

Quote:Across 2024/25, we will develop plans to transform the way we work across BBC News. UK story teams will have an increasing focus on digital storytelling and live output, with a reduction in the amount of television packaging. We will use new technologies to deliver our news output more efficiently and more flexibly. We will also continue to review all output to ensure it is delivering value for money and continue to look at where we need to reduce broadcast hours, working with Ofcom to review proposals where appropriate.

I can't help but wonder -- given the Director-General's announcement on Monday that the BBC will "proactively deploy AI" across its services -- how long it will be before the Beeb announces the replacement of its UK news channel (due to low audience numbers vs. licence fee pressures etc) with an 'innovative' new service featuring AI-generated (but human-editor-approved!) half-hourly breakfiller-style 'bulletins', auto-generating a round-up of the latest news compiled for UK audiences from BBC News content packaged for TV or other platforms, such as the News app or TikTok.

Indeed, within the next few years -- and far sooner than many of us are prepared to imagine, myself included -- I'm quite sure that something along the lines of my batsh*t crazy prediction above will come to pass.

Over the last twelve months, the BBC has been aggressively avoiding any promotion, or even mention, of the News Channel whenever possible, consistently referring audiences instead to the BBC News website and app, or iPlayer live-streams, where previously they were encouraged to watch its rolling news service. It's clear that the BBC is already trying to steer UK audiences away from its TV news service towards its online provisions.

And from the above quote in the Annual Report, the BBC is now actively working to further 'de-emphasise' its TV news coverage, by focusing more heavily on packaging more of its reporting for non-TV platforms. The natural outcome of this course of action, surely, is that eventually, only a handful of stories will be 'traditionally' packaged for the sacrosanct 1, 6 and 10, and for Breakfast, but nearly everything else will be aimed primarily at BBC News website and mobile/app users, presumably with more 'bitesized' reporting, and more 'explainer'-style clips, and fewer in-depth pieces.

With increasing licence fee pressures, and reduced to nothing more than occasional opt-outs for the most essential breaking stories, the BBC News Channel in the UK will surely be viewed as an increasingly irrelevant and expensive extravagance in cash-strapped times, as viewers increasingly turn first to the website and app for information. In the cruellest terms, there are obvious headline-grabbing savings to be made in terms of redeploying or releasing presenters, reporters, crew and other staff dedicated to the UK feed, in favour of a predominantly AI-powered service with human editorial oversight.

Meanwhile, the commercially-focused World feed would continue -- after all, the BBC has recently been investing and working to expand availability of the BBC News channel internationally (especially in the lucrative US market), so it clearly sees a strong business opportunity there. Obviously, it would also need a similar roster of TV-ready news content to the BBC One news programmes for its global TV channel, and it would need that content around the clock.

So there would still be some investment in high-quality reporting of essential stories, without a doubt.

But since the merger, we've already seen a huge increase in discussions, panels and opinions across BBC News, all of which greatly reduces the amount of airtime for all that pesky, expensive news reporting. And if the BBC News channel were to continue solely as an international commercial enterprise, without the regulatory constraints and domestic obligations of the UK feed dragging it down, then surely commercial pressures would eventually come to influence decisions made regarding content -- not by kowtowing to particular brands, but rather by reducing the amount of actual reporting and news coverage in order to cut costs.

Which stories are more important to cover than others in a bulletin, when there's only time for 4 packages instead of 6? Which stories -- which would have been covered before -- won't make the cut, if more time every hour is devoted to discussion and opinion? More opinions = less airtime for real reporting = less content needing to be packaged for TV bulletins = savings!

Now... perhaps I'm overreacting. Perhaps I'm reading too much into this. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong on all of these musings (particularly on the AI bulletins...!), and I'll look terribly foolish. It wouldn't be the first time.

But given the direction in which the BBC News channel has already been moving for the last couple of years, combined with today's announcement of a "reduction in the amount of TV packaging", I don't think it's unreasonable to look ahead at the road that's been charted, and consider a not-too-distant future in which the UK news channel no longer exists as anything but a rolling breakfiller with video inserts; and the surviving World news channel descends into an unbearable hellscape of talking heads barking idiotic opinions at each other -- briefly interrupted by news bulletins.

Forgive us, Lord Reith, for we have sinned. 🙏🏼

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - bkman1990 - 28-03-2024

I don't know if my reading of some of the quotes here in this thread is correct within this post.

Although; without looking at the full report itself about the current status of the UK feed of the BBC News Channel. I'm thinking that the ideas for the future of the News Channel may look similar to the look and feel of Euronews. However; this rumoured scaled back look for the BBC News Channel for UK audiences would be infused with BBC journalistic standards once it inevitably faces more cutbacks from the BBC Licence Fee in the near future.

I don't know whether the news content side of it will be a greater improvement or not as opposed to stories being presented on the current UK feed of the News Channel. We don't still even know if any major UK breaking news will still be covered in full with real human journalists on this rumoured AI powered news channel either. If funding is set aside to maintain that provision for major breaking news for UK audiences from that news presentation point from the old BBC Weather balcony for UK audiences; then that would be fine.

However; would it be able to match the speed of reporting major UK Breaking News when it's being covered on rival channels like Sky News?

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RE: BBC News Pres: Apr 2023 - Present (News Channel/BBC One) - Newshound47 - 28-03-2024

The BBC app is in weekend mode already with the non News notifications typical of the weekend coming today - Beyoncé’s new album just now.

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