[Rolling News]

Shouldn’t this be covered by the Uk opt out team and getting NickyS from a tv screen?

I don’t think they have that option at the weekend.

[Steve in Pudsey]

Does it need anything more than a line on the ticker? There isn't much to report is there?

[Andrew]

I know the Schofield thread is thriving elsewhere but how can the BBC justify opening a GLOBAL news programme with this story?

NOBODY outside of the UK knows who the hell he is?

What next? A long serving Australian presenter packing up her bag and leaving?

Utter nonsense.

Gary Lineker mark 2.

If anything it’s worse

That had all the angles of the entire Sports department walking out and the whole future of the BBC and the DG was called into question

This story is just a UK presenter leaving a TV show. There is nothing more to it*

* as it’s being reported now of course

[Brekkie]

It's as if one channel serving both audiences doesn't work!

[James2001]

It's as if one channel serving both audiences doesn't work!

Some people will get incredibly angry at you for suggesting that

[ginnyfan]

22.00 CET and this is still the top story, with 7 minutes and counting spent on it. This shouldn't even be the top story on UK only news channels, if there are any out there with any integrity.

For all the complaints about UK viewers being shortchanged by this merger, in reality it's the World viewers who have had to suffer through countless local UK showbiz nonstories treated as major breaking news.

[harshy]

22.00 CET and this is still the top story, with 7 minutes and counting spent on it. This shouldn't even be the top story on UK only news channels, if there are any out there with any integrity.

For all the complaints about UK viewers being shortchanged by this merger, in reality it's the World viewers who have had to suffer through countless local UK showbiz nonstories treated as major breaking news.

Yes this is pretty poor really just shows the weakness of the UK side of the service or what’s left of it, it’s non existent on weekends.

[Independent]

Starting with that ITV story is terrible for a global audience and probably for the UK audience too. The second story was Manchester United (though a long time ago Premier League stories did rise to the top on BBC World but I still think there's little justification for sports taking priority over more serious stories). It's strange how a party that wants to break up a part of your country leading in elections is considered to be a story near the end of a bulletin while a TV host on a competing channel leaving one of their shows is the top story. They do this while the G7 summit and China is trying to solidify its presence in Central Asia by hosting its own summit. With the latter, there wasn't much coverage on the BBC despite being told about the rise of China and why it's important to be aware of the global order changing in the next few decades.

I think elections taking priority over showbiz, celebrity and sports topics is something a public broadcaster should do. Even local elections for global audiences are more newsworthy than some TV host on a channel that's restricted to the UK. Very poor form from the BBC though not surprising based on the last few years. From "Putting News First" to "Putting News Last". Sad to see how the BBC has fallen.

[DTV]

I think elections taking priority over showbiz, celebrity and sports topics is something a public broadcaster should do. Even local elections for global audiences are more newsworthy than some TV host on a channel that's restricted to the UK. Very poor form from the BBC though not surprising based on the last few years.

They should, but elections and politics in democracies outside of the UK and US (and weirdly French presidential elections too) have become one of the BBC's real weakspots. The low running order placement of this set of NI local elections is quite unusual though - typically the BBC do give NI elections reasonable coverage, but this time it has been oddly underreported on both the channel and network bulletins - possibly partially down to the NUJ strike. Though, because of that lack of Newsline yesterday, the fact that the elections got little more than a News in Brief paragraph on both the Six and Ten was especially poor.

I guess some would argue that it's part of the BBC's tension in trying to find a balance between not being seen as too patrician/elitist, i.e. 'this is the news you should know', and being too tabloid, i.e. 'the news you want to know' - ultimately, foreign politics is newsworthy, but of little relevance or interest to most people. Though a sensible interpretation of this tension is, of course, somewhat undermined by the incredible placement of the Schofield story, which I wouldn't say was justified as a lead even on domestic bulletins.

[Rolling News]

We always knew the BBC like to do things gradually, but they've just opened tonight's late bulletin with the titles they usually use when in Studio B, despite still coming from E.

Maybe in a few weeks the Saturday late bulletin will actually be coming from B...