[m_in_m]

A minor thing, and I know this was almost certainly a mistake, but I think I prefer the location text in mixed case, as seen on Breakfast this morning, rather than full caps…

Is there a reason they don't take the text that is input and automatically convert it to upper case? That would eliminate this error on this graphic.

[Spencer]

The only problem with that is if they use letters which drop below the baseline, such as g, y, q etc as there's not enough black space to accommodate them. Central London doesn't have any descenders so looks OK.

Fair point, but they manage to accommodate mixed case text in similar sized blocks for various purposes, such as Twitter handles, in the bottom right of the screen. I just think it’d match the rest of their current graphics better not to have it in shouty capitals. But, as I say, a very minor thing, and the least of their worries given the state of the News Channel’s lower thirds.

[ALV]

The UK feed is currently simulcasting the weekend evening bulletin. The EPG still shows Sportsday being scheduled at 1830.

I couldn't observe a pattern on what circumstances will the UK feed take the weekend bulletins... Do they simulcast when it starts at :00/:30 or it's just a random decision?

[interestednovice]

They probably just throw them in when it fits the schedule easily, as a cheap way to count up UK content hours and deflect criticism of the merger.

[Reith85]

The UK feed is currently simulcasting the weekend evening bulletin. The EPG still shows Sportsday being scheduled at 1830.

I couldn't observe a pattern on what circumstances will the UK feed take the weekend bulletins... Do they simulcast when it starts at :00/:30 or it's just a random decision?

It'll be the latter given 'random' is the modus operandi for the merged BBC News Channel, from schedules to presentation and professionalism.

[Rolling News]

I'm not sure how often the Sunday teatime bulletin falls at 6:30pm, but it may be because they couldn't use the sports studio in Salford for Sportsday as it was used for the sports part of the bulletin, therefore decided to simulcast.

(Not that I'm making excuses for them, and fully agree this whole merged channel is just one random mess where decisions are made on a whim on the hour).

[interestednovice]

Haha, Reith85, true!
That’s so much better put than my post.

On a serious note, though, they can’t really slot in a simulcast easily at, say, 5 minutes into an hour (unless they show varying-length filler such as the infamous guide dogs and possibly miss TOTH or BOTH junctions). Basically, it wouldn’t work unless they are willing to crash in and out of the global feed completely which is a presentational low they haven’t yet slumped to in UK daytime (probably peak viewing) hours.

On the other hand, they do it every single weeknight when Newsnight ends and they crash into Newsday (which is often proceeded by a crash into Newsnight curtailing the Ten) so it could happen.

Paul Royall alluded to some viewers just always “going to the News Channel when they want to see the news” as justification for simulcasting when asked directly about it on Newswatch, so I think the BBC like to simulcast where they can.

[ginnyfan]

The recent weekend line up of presenters makes the channel even less watchable. I thought the transition period was the last time we would see some of these interns but instead they have taken over.

[Rolling News]

The recent weekend line up of presenters makes the channel even less watchable. Sorry but I thought the transition period was the last time we would see some of these interns but instead they have taken over.

Every time I tune in now there seems to be someone new presenting. And it’s not just because it’s summer, it’s been this way since April.

For some reason, I thought the weekends would be the “presenter reporters”. Have they filled any more of these posts, or is it still just Nancy Kacungira?

[interestednovice]

They are filling-in freelancers and BBC staff from regions taking on the extra shifts because the BBC still, for some unknown reason, have not appointed any presenter-reporters other than Nancy K.

Eventually, we should see whoever gets those roles semi-regularly presenting on the channel and things should settle down into pretty predictable shifts.

If you take a look at the US operation, Carl and Helena are the presenter-reporters and they both present at weekends and also appear as reporters during the week. Presumably they both have weekend-equivalent days off midweek (but probably not the same days as each other). This way, on a typical day, you have Sumi and either Carl or Helena as an additional reporter (sometimes in the studio with analysis, other times on location).

I had a look at how the BBC One bulletin we were just discussing appeared on the NC via iPlayer’s rewind function, and interestingly Monika Plaha - who had presented the preceding half an hour of simulcast news - reappeared once the BBC One bulletin ended to provide 10 minutes of filler until the TOTH. Am I being too hopeful, or was this perhaps an experiment in allowing for a better UK feed using the same resources as the “main” feed during downtime from live news? Presumably the global feed was showing a recorded back half hour programme at the same time.