[AJB39]

It’ll be very interesting to see how the first major unplanned UK breaking news story is handled. Up to now as far as I’m aware all the UK feed opt outs have been planned or known of in advance.

[whistlerpro]

But I think the argument goes (reasonably, imho) that there aren’t many viewers who are just sat watching news channels. Majority of viewing is transient and linked to events - so it makes sense to focus on that event and that event alone. I can see the sense in that.

As all the commentary from the BBC bosses has said about the new channel, it’s no longer about giving summaries of the news with report after report. And it’s hard to argue against the fact that we find out what’s happening today mostly from places other than television.

As I’ve said before, and I know it’s not a popular view among many here, the concept for the new channel makes sense to me. The execution has been wanting in many cases, but the direction is a reasonable one.

You’re probably right that a good chunk of viewers will be interested in the top story alone, but it does seem to split the channel into two modes, either specialised coverage of one story in the U.K. or varied international bulletins with a few U.K. stories thrown in.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but I like the idea of dipping into the news at will, so that I feel like I know what’s going on that day. Similarly if the channel is playing in a public venue like a pub then it also serves that purpose.

Anyone watching this one story feed is likely to get fed up and get that ‘news fatigue‘ feeling that they’ve seen it all before a lot quicker, unless it’s really a story that merits it. I appreciate the experimentation though!

[harshy]

It’s the only way to save money if they have one presenter in a cheap studio pedalling an autocue on their own focussing on one Uk story, whilst world the superior gets close to the service it’s always been serving.

[News76]

It’s the only way to save money if they have one presenter in a cheap studio pedalling an autocue on their own focussing on one Uk story, whilst world the superior gets close to the service it’s always been serving.

Well then something is going to have to give as you can't have one Presenter doing the UK opt outs for the entire day althrough having said that we haven't had a UK opt out happen in the evening yet.

[ginnyfan]

Uhm, isn't the purpose of the opt out team to cover ONE breaking news or developing UK story? Anything more than that is just creating a new parallel, UK news channel, again. The whole point of the merger was to get rid of it.

[harshy]

Uhm, isn't the purpose of the opt out team to cover ONE breaking news or developing UK story? Anything more than that is just creating a new parallel, UK news channel, again. The whole point of the merger was to get rid of it.

Well it will satisfy ofcom I guess, and get people watching online, ultimately giving the bbc a very good reason to get rid of what’s left of the news channel, I can’t imagine anyone is watching it for international news.

[GraemeT88]

I’m not sure what people actually want to see... all the views before was people didn’t expect opts to happen and breaking news wouldn’t be covered.

Then when it does - it’s criticised for being too long?

Or for ONLY focussing on the big breaking news,

[whistlerpro]

Uhm, isn't the purpose of the opt out team to cover ONE breaking news or developing UK story? Anything more than that is just creating a new parallel, UK news channel, again. The whole point of the merger was to get rid of it.

I think the typical viewer would not know the difference between the opt out and regular presenters, but would wonder why they don’t change the subject. Can seem a bit forced.

[South]

I wonder what would happen in the rare event that there is two major breaking stories at the same time.

[House]

Seems like maybe part of the issue then is ensuring the UK opt of the news channel doesn’t always (have to) take the breaking news stream for the news stream to function? I don’t have an issue with extensive coverage of an important story being offered, but on a news channel where you have no option to switch to other news (unlike online/app) it was complete overkill. And I’m not persuaded they actually had enough of a story to cover at that length/depth - yes, hearing from Jim Reid in the newsroom and doctors on the picket line was good, but they didn’t actually need *several* reporters/correspondents doing lives from across the UK.