[House]

Not a good look for one of the fab 5.

It didn't go unnoticed by Martine, on Twitter.

Martine said on Twitter Maryam kindly stepped in - sounds like she was in the building for other reasons and was covering for an absent colleague.

Also interesting to see Martine say she may appear on BBC 1 bulletins in the future - certainly sounds like some of the current presenters will be continuing on broadcast tv in some capacity.

twitter.com 

[interestednovice]

It could have been that somebody was ill, and Maryam was in the building for new programme rehearsals: so to cover they asked Martine to continue for an hour whilst Maryam got ready to step in.

[EverythingFavs]

Tonights Newswatch will explain the new differences on BBC News next week.

[LargelyALurker]

Tonights Newswatch will explain the new differences on BBC News next week.

This whole thing is being done so oddly from my perspective. 

If it’s a ‘new channel’, then it should be launched with new graphics, generate some excitement with promotion, a proper on-screen farewell to the current channel. 

If it’s not a new channel but effectively just increased sharing programmes between domestic and world to cut costs, then minimising the changes would make sense. So you would continue with current presenters and brands that are known to U.K. and World audiences, like Outside Source. 

So, which is it? Seems like what’s happening is the worst of both worlds.

[House]

Tonights Newswatch will explain the new differences on BBC News next week.

This whole thing is being done so oddly from my perspective. 

If it’s a ‘new channel’, then it should be launched with new graphics, generate some excitement with promotion, a proper on-screen farewell to the current channel. 

If it’s not a new channel but effectively just increased sharing programmes between domestic and world to cut costs, then minimising the changes would make sense. So you would continue with current presenters and brands that are known to U.K. and World audiences, like Outside Source. 

So, which is it? Seems like what’s happening is the worst of both worlds.

Isn’t the truth that this is being done for cost savings purposes, but management want to be able to point to format changes and new shows to argue they are saving money while introducing new value, rather than simply reducing output considerably?

Therefore they want to introduce lots of ‘innovative’ changes to justify this being more than a cost savings exercise, while at the same time minimising promotion and introducing step changes because the product isn’t ready and they don’t have the funds to do it properly?

[mdta]

A new channel born from cost cutting and controversy - not because it is a great and necessary evolution for News presentation and coverage.

Launching with a big splash would court headlines about the expense paid, when they are announcing a 1,000 hour reduction in output.

We believe a new brand image is in the works, but not ready for the other changes, which are probably needed in terms of staffing budgets, studio/production space in the US, etc.

[Stuart]

Tonights Newswatch will explain the new differences on BBC News next week.

If it’s a ‘new channel’, then it should be launched with new graphics, generate some excitement with promotion, a proper on-screen farewell to the current channel.

Actually telling the truth wouldn't play so well, would it:
"We're renaming BBC World News and broadcasting it in the UK, with a few domestic scraps and simulcasts thrown in as opt outs, to make you think you haven't lost a channel or many of the popular presenters"

[DTV]

Actually telling the truth wouldn't play so well, would it:
"We're renaming BBC World News and broadcasting it in the UK, with a few domestic scraps and simulcasts thrown in as opt outs, to make you think you haven't lost a channel or many of the popular presenters"

Given we've just spent four weeks with effectively the BBC News channel being broadcast internationally for large parts of the day, you could equally presuppose that World's presenters are being kept on to help make the international audience think they haven't lost a channel.

[Juicy Joe]

Anyone catch what Newswatch had to say about the situation?

[DTV]

Anyone catch what Newswatch had to say about the situation?

Little new info - only bit really that the UK content during World ad breaks will be from around the nations and regions. Also, several planned opt-outs for next week to cover UK events. Aside from that, largely a reiteration of vague info from various press releases.

The viewer comments were as you'd expect - including the ill-informed assumption that solely UK licence payers are funding the service, despite the international contribution being significantly larger, and the rather odd complaint that overnights coming from outside London will diminish the ability to cover UK breaking news.

Similarly, as expected, network simulcasts are being trumpeted as 'seven-and-a-half hours of premium UK-facing content', though, as also expected, it was implied UK news will feature relatively strongly during combined hours.