[interestednovice]

I’m watching the BBC NC right now, and it looks like Hardtalk has been filmed in the BBC’s Millbank studio (the one used by Politics Live). Is that accurate or is it another NBH studio inspired by Millbank?

If it is Millbank, is that the new home of Hardtalk it is this a one-off?

It looks good on screen, I have to say!

[DTV]

I’m watching the BBC NC right now, and it looks like Hardtalk has been filmed in the BBC’s Millbank studio (the one used by Politics Live). Is that accurate or is it another NBH studio inspired by Millbank?

If it is Millbank, is that the new home of Hardtalk it is this a one-off?

Looks like the Millbank studio. It's rare these days, but HARDtalk did semi-frequently come from there during the TVC days. Basically, they have a base studio and, if that is unavailable, they use which ever one is. Typically, they are recorded in the mid-afternoon, but sometimes it has to be recorded at other times and that is when you often see different studios.

[interestednovice]

That makes sense, although I have to say that regularly using the Millbank studio wouldn’t be a bad idea.

That studio is always free in the mid-afternoon, I believe, and the set looked excellent in Hardtalk mode.

No need to use a lesser spare NBH studio! I accept that operational reasons may make this untenable on a regular basis, though. Presumably Millbank only normally has camera operators and gallery staff on the rota for Politics Live, and overtime would have to be paid if they were there in the afternoons. I imagine both could be done in one day, practically-speaking, as part of a split shift with the same personnel, but it may not make financial sense.

[Former Member 237]

But any big news story will be covered. If there is a big story in the UK, the UK version will break off to report on it. Lets wait and see what we get before casting judgement. Not long to wait.

[interestednovice]

I’m prepared to wait and see but so far the leaks and piecemeal information we do have doesn’t seem promising - and the opts sound like they will end up being amateurish and inadequate.

Nicky Campbell’s radio show being on the channel is also completely inappropriate and unforgivable.

I just hope I’m wrong and it somehow all comes together!

[Kojak]

I’m prepared to wait and see but so far the leaks and piecemeal information we do have doesn’t seem promising - and the opts sound like they will end up being amateurish and inadequate.

Nicky Campbell’s radio show being on the channel is also completely inappropriate and unforgivable.

I just hope I’m wrong and it somehow all comes together!

I suspect the Nicky Campbell thing is something that will be quietly dropped after a few months. (I hope so, anyway!). It all seems like a ploy to fill some quota of UK only content.

[interestednovice]

I’m sure that’s what it is, but let’s not have UK content for the sake of it, if that UK content is wholly inappropriate and less suited to the channel than the WN content it is “covering up” via the opt.

The “anything but WN” attitude really needs to stop now that the NC has actually merged with WN - otherwise they will just air guide dogs on a loop forever and go “great, look at all that UK content”. It’s a nonsense - as is broadcasting an opinion-led radio phone-in on a supposedly factual and analytical news channel.

Also, I do fear that it will be written off as “not seriously going to happen” before it quietly does happen. After all, the BBC dropped the evening Papers shift with absolutely no worthwhile provision given to News Channel viewers during that time. No serious plan on how to bridge the gap between the News at Ten and Newsday. Repeats of random reports such as guide dogs, covering 22 minutes out of a hour, is unacceptable. Why not air Asia Business Report instead?

They clearly are serious about the plan to some extent as they’ve already piloted it live on the channel several times. Thankfully, when those experiments have occurred, they have still had a presenter and studio ready to “dip out of it” pretty quickly and move on to real news. It will be rubbish if we have hours of the stuff on TV!

They should only be allowed to count unique UK content in the opt-hours quota, otherwise there is no point to the opt at all. That would preclude simulcasts of domestic content on BBC One and Two, radio content of any type and repeats from being used to generate artificial “UK content hours” statistics.

[Independent]

BBC World News is very US-focused, so it probably is of relevance. It’s definitely not of much British relevance, however. I suspect Sky News would have dropped it if something newsworthy happened here, but the BBC would have been reluctant to.

It certainly is these days. For example, a tornado kills 23 in the US is the top story just a moment ago. While Cyclone Freddy kills over 700 (most likely over a thousand) and unusually hits the same area twice was barely covered.

[interestednovice]

As an aside, I was listening to BBC World Service on the radio last weekend and they had extensive coverage of Cyclone Freddy.

It is even more curious that recent BBC myopia has only seemingly affected TV and not Radio (although I’m thankful that not all BBC output has gone downhill!). I’m concerned, personally, that it’s a reflection of cutbacks behind the scenes in newsgathering and production. We are getting a poorer journalistic output as a result.

[Radio_man]

As an aside, I was listening to BBC World Service on the radio last weekend and they had extensive coverage of Cyclone Freddy.

It is even more curious that recent BBC myopia has only seemingly affected TV and not Radio (although I’m thankful that not all BBC output has gone downhill!). I’m concerned, personally, that it’s a reflection of cutbacks behind the scenes in newsgathering and production. We are getting a poorer journalistic output as a result.

There have been massive cuts to BBC local radio recently - local TV and radio journalists across England were striking over it the week before last.