[Independent]

BBC News Now is the least worst name out of the three. Are there any good reasons why they can't bring back GMT (a much better name than Now, Verified or Daily Global) and especially the theme? Rights issues?
"The Hub" and "World News Today" should also be brought back. Nothing wrong with recycling and reusing if possible. More World News nostalgia:
www.youtube.com 

www.youtube.com 

The graphics for "The Hub" are a bit plain but the theme is a runner up to GMT's.

[Worzel]

Don’t be silly, it doesn’t imply that at all. 

Did ‘Live with Lucy Hockings’ imply that the rest of their programming was prerecorded?

No, it stated clearly that it was presented by Lucy Hockings, implying that other programmes had different presenters.

The ITV News channel had 'Live with Alastair Stewart'.

[Spencer]

The Daily Global sounds like a poor copy of Metropolis's Daily Planet newspaper...

Also is ‘The Daily Global’ any more  ‘global’ than the rest of the channel’s output? Isn’t it all world focussed now?

Is ‘BBC News Now’ realistically any more ‘Now’ than other shows?

Apologies I’ve not been keeping totally up to date with all the changes, but is there anything in terms of content and style to differentiate between these new named programmes, or a standard hour of BBC News?

On the odd occasions in the past when I watched BBC World News when abroad, I never quite understood the point of the various programmes like Impact or whatever, and what their purpose was, above and beyond standard output. Obviously I get stuff like World News America or World Business Report which speak for themselves, but what’s the actual raison d’être of these shows with the vague names?

[DTV]

Apologies I’ve not been keeping totally up to date with all the changes, but is there anything in terms of content and style to differentiate between these new named programmes, or a standard hour of BBC News?

There isn't really much difference in terms of format or presentation to what was there before - though there were already some minor differences between shifts (Yalda Hakim's 'programme' was more interview-based) - but it is all broadly indistinguishable from a standard hour, bar the different title graphics.

On the odd occasions in the past when I watched BBC World News when abroad, I never quite understood the point of the various programmes like Impact or whatever, and what their purpose was, above and beyond standard output. Obviously I get stuff like World News America or World Business Report which speak for themselves, but what’s the actual raison d’être of these shows with the vague names?

When these 'colourful' branded programmes began in 2010, there was actually a good deal of difference between them. Not just were they all presentationally different (well, as different as N8 would allow), but they all had their own regional focus (carried over from the previous WNT editions) and some differences in format, particularly in the back-half (Impact, for instance, was a bit magaziney, and they all had different business/sport segments). They also differed from the standard news bulletins by spending longer on the main stories and having non-correspondent interviews (which was rare on a WN bulletin at the time).

Starting around 2015/6, when they were extended, and particularly since their return post-Covid, the differences between them did decrease - the regional focus was less clear and they tended to follow the same broad format. Once they all came from Studio C, they also became presented in an almost identical manner.

As for their raison d’être, it was originally questions of marketability - it is easier to promote individual programmes to a generic one that is on all day and you can then tailor that programme to a specific (premium) audience. When the first World News Today was launched in 2006, it was explicitly designed and heavily promoted as a morning programme for the US audience. Of course, they then launched half-a-dozen other editions of World News Today, which made them harder to promote - so you ended up with each getting its own name.

[DTV]

NBC's example is alliterative, though, so it kind of works.

Yeah I think it's a reasonably good name for their channel. I don't really dislike BBC News Now as a name either, it's just pretty average. Neither good nor bad.

It just feels weird to call the show BBC News Now when NBC have an entire channel with the same name available in both the UK and US (where the BBC show is broadcast). And I doubt NBC are particularly happy with it. (I assume there's no intellectual property issue as you would hope the BBC have had it fully lawyered...)

I think one of the reasons that News Now seems a bit weird, is that a truly BBC name should be Newsnow. I mean, over the years they've had Newsnight, Newsday, Newsbeat, Newsline, Newsround, Newsdesk, Newshour, Newsroom, Newsweek, Newstalk, NewsView, Newscast, plus probably some more I can't recall. And most of those names refer to multiple different BBC programmes - Newsday, for instance, has been a BBC Two evening programme, several World Service programmes, three BBC WSTV/World/World News programmes and Newsday 24 was the original branding of News 24's 'drivetime' shift.

[harshy]

The original 2010 branded shows were pretty good, it was amazing what they did with N8, the only remnants of the old World News are the presenters, but there are now part of a merged channel seemingly stripped of a decent budget and a lack of common sense as non of the recent changes like these new branded shows make any sense, there’s nothing that differentiates them and it just feels like an exercise to keep the commercial entity happy.

[Keith]

It does feel like these new branded programmes are just branding news coverage hours for the sake of it.

The likes of "Verified Live" feels like the sort of thing which might be fine as a back-half hour(s) branding, provided it had an emphasis on how the main stories of the day were verified. Having it take up an entire three hour block seems like a bit of a farse.

As others have said "The Daily Global" name feels very much like a newspaper you'd see in films/TV/comics. Even tweaking the name to "Global Today" or similar would sound much better in my opinion.

[sparkyb28]

What I find with the ‘new look’ and these programme strands is there is no pace, when you look at CNN now and the hub there was a slick pace to them but now apart from the context which has it spot on the rest just drags along as if everyone is bored. 

And yes the programme idents are poorly done and anything from the balcony looks botched with cheap dragged out of a classroom cupboard screens.

Are the people high up at BBC News pleased with this shambles, do they think this is news for the modern era?

[mouseboy33]

I think you hit the nail on the head for me. Some of the presenters seem bored when they are presenting. I dont expect them to be bouncing around or jumping about, but geez. You look back say at the old Flag era and there was some peppier presenting. Now its just library hush-style of presenting. Sometimes toward the end of the sentence I dont even hear what was said.

[JamesWorldNews]

Listening to the “wireless” in the car on the way home. “Rhythm is a Dancer” played. Realizing that the thunderclaps and drumbeat were quite reminiscent of the BBC News theme and countdown. Probably even more so when the vocals are removed and the music is played alone.

Tell me I’m not wrong.

Anyway, moving on…….