[Reith85]

No it isn't-not when it's World heavy channel wise-Whoever thought having one News operation was a good idea because of cost really didn't do the sums or read the room properly.

Exactly. I genuinely wonder whether Deborah Turness, Paul Royall and even Tim Davie have sat down and watched at least an hour of the merged channel's output since its launch. I know Davie's background is in marketing rather than journalism but you don't have to be a journalist or in the broadcasting profession yourself (I am not - I'm just a member of the BBC's audience in the UK) to see how visually and editorially weak it is since the merger and how the likes of Sky News now appear far slicker and more competent by comparison.

[rkolsen]

A few months on since they merged the channels, there are still things that baffle me about it. I realise BBC News is now running on a skeleton staff but how nobody at New Broadcasting House seems to be able to exercise any decent judgement over the following is genuinely perplexing:

- BBC News Now, The Daily Global, Verified Live: quite simply, why? If you're going to brand segments of the day, at least make an effort of it in terms of the editorial content and the visual identity. To give these segments half-baked title sequences but then not to follow through with distinctive journalistic content or any differentiated visual branding in the astons or the studio completely defeats the purpose of introducing the brands in the first place. They're entirely tokenistic, nothing more. That's not the fault of the presenters, who are more than capable. But it's a complete nonsense that you have Matthew Amroliwala introducing Verified Live saying it's 3 hours of fact checking etc etc - I've watched the Verified Live hours on several occasions and it's essentially a few hours of standard BBC News reports and interviews as you find on any other hour of the News Channel. I can understand why The Context continues to be branded as such as that's clearly a discussion based show with Christian Fraser but the other segments should just revert back to BBC

- The way the flipper only operates properly for certain hours of the day and is stuck on the pointless URL at all other hours is very frustrating. Is the BBC News division that seriously underfunded now that we have to rely only on one or two people overseeing the flipper, but as soon as they go home for the day, that's it? The BBC audience (what's left of it) has to make do with a flipper stuck redundantly on a website address before said people come back into work? Either have a flipper that functions at all hours or don't have one at all.

I completely agree with the comments of the show. The flipper if I remember came from a seperate text editor whose job is it was to update it. I’m sure there could be a newsroom producer or an associate producer that can update the ticker as need be.

And it they really want to save money, its cheaper since there's no massive LED wall to power!

I imagine the three plasmas draw way more power than the LED wall on C.

[Stuart]

Have you watched the DTL shots over varying bulletins?  E is never offline. How could it be? We've never seen the channel decamped to D. It's THE only backup solution.

I'm sure I've seen the channel broadcast from D in the past, and also from Millbank. There are plenty of backups within the contingency plans.

[rkolsen]

Have you watched the DTL shots over varying bulletins?  E is never offline. How could it be? We've never seen the channel decamped to D. It's THE only backup solution.

They seem to be recorded when I see it. Unless it’s a true newsroom shot where you hear the noise.

[Brekkie]

- The way the flipper only operates properly for certain hours of the day and is stuck on the pointless URL at all other hours is very frustrating. Is the BBC News division that seriously underfunded now that we have to rely only on one or two people overseeing the flipper, but as soon as they go home for the day, that's it? The BBC audience (what's left of it) has to make do with a flipper stuck redundantly on a website address before said people come back into work? Either have a flipper that functions at all hours or don't have one at all.

Surely it doesn't need to be manually operated - can't it just pull headlines from the website/app?

Can we have at least a week off between the 'it's World News in everything but name' nonsenses? It just objectively isn't. For an international news channel, there's a lot of domestic news - with core UK hours leading with UK stories about as often as they don't. Sure, it's less than the old News channel, but it's a lot more UK-heavy than World ever was.

The trouble is the feeling is there is too much international news for the domestic audience and too much domestic news for the international audience. Both services lose out.

[DTV]

The trouble is the feeling is there is too much international news for the domestic audience and too much domestic news for the international audience.  Both services lose out.

Well that was always obviously going to be an issue - editorially a compromise was always going to be difficult, but the fact is, you've basically got a daytime schedule made up of hours with a similar lean to the pre-merger 10:00 hour - which is pretty much half-and-half and closer to an old NC hour than an old WN hour. There have also been far more occasions since the merger where a UK story has been substantially overcovered on the channel than where a major UK news story has been unduly ignored. I understand the perception issues and obviously a pacier format would allow more stories to get covered, but frankly - for a joint channel - UK news gets at least its fair share, arguably more than.

No it isn't-not when it's World heavy channel wise-Whoever thought having one News operation was a good idea because of cost really didn't do the sums or read the room properly.

Cost-wise/sum-wise, one channel is obviously cheaper and, if you want extra money, the best and most realistic option by far is retaining international profitability - which your NC broadcast internationally fantasy would struggle to do. As for reading the room, the UK viewing figures have held up better than expected and there has been no substantive public blowback to the changes - honestly, the reaction against BBC Singers was bigger.

[rkolsen]

Surely it doesn't need to be manually operated - can't it just pull headlines from the website/app?


The trouble is the feeling is there is too much international news for the domestic audience and too much domestic news for the international audience. Both services lose out.

That’s what it did in world. They had no text editor so the ticker pulled up the headlines on the RSS feed and you end up sometimes with click bait headlines appear or something that make no sense.

[ViridianFan]

I was news channel on my phone again the other day for the interests rates announcement. I noticed that the lower thirds had returned to two lines. So they can manage two lines on the opt out but not on the main channel. I can confirm I could still read all the text on them. 

It does feel like that channel has lost that professional feel to it. Yes, the furios used to go AWOL but it was usually dealt with by laughing or making a sarcastic comment whereas know its crashing in and out of programs. 

I still don’t get this whole talking from the newsroom when there is the studio sat there with these massive screens only ever showing that logo look. 

It suddenly all looks and feels very tidy. With all the upheaval they’ve all gone through it and then with recent events including George’s passing, you do wonder if at them moment some of their hearts aren’t in it. I’ve been in that situation, you go through a run and stuff and you end up for physically and mentally drain you’re literally just going through the motions.

[Brekkie]

That’s what it did in world. They had no text editor so the ticker pulled up the headlines on the RSS feed and you end up sometimes with click bait headlines appear or something that make no sense.

Not sure if Robert passes through these parts but he's put a blog up in the last 24 hours on the art of the news channel text producer.

medium.com 

The art of text producing. This mad and unique TV news role is one… | by Robert …
In some cases you’re usually the lowest-paid journalist in the newsroom, sitting…
  Source: medium.com

---

I see as a result if the football next Tuesday morning the news at one moves to 11am on BBC One, which is only 20 mins long, meanwhile the update schedule on BBC Two has the BBC news simulcast finishing at 11.30, I assume due to the length of the 1 it will not be simulcast on the News channel, therefore both One and Two will have different news output, surely that must be a first other than Newsnight and 10.

The BBC2 schedule has been changed now but surely in these circumstances it would be best to air the 1pm news at 1pm on BBC2 (there is no clashing live sport) and then the regional news on BBC1 after the football.

[Newsroom]

I'll just leave this here.

Yalda Hakim has basically left over the way things have worked out for this merged disaster.

www.thetimes.co.uk 

BBC News presenter quits revamped channel to join Sky News
One of the leading presenters of the revamped BBC News channel has quit to join …
  Source: www.thetimes.co.uk