[Brekkie]

Pacing makes such a difference - when they extended the ITV Evening News to an hour I feared it would become slow, padded and a chore but it's pacing means the hour flies by.

That was backed up by investment of course but feels like now more content is only getting an airing on the BBC1 bulletins so some of the additional required content is already being made anyway.

[DTV]

Especially these days where content for younger people has been getting shorter & snappier due to diminishing attention span (including myself at 24), I think it would be good to speed up the glacial pace.

I was thinking yesterday that there's actually a sort of weird logic behind the format and some of the presentation changes. When you consider that two of either channel's most successful formats in recent years (especially in terms of social media traction) have been latter-era Outside Source and (Beyond) 100 Days, it makes some sort of sense to try and export those formats - which already work for both audiences - across the schedule.

But the problem is, they've tried to hybridise two very different formats and have ended up with a camel that doesn't really work. You're left with the slowed story pace of both, but without the detailed step-by-step analysis of a good Ros Atkins' explainer or the presenter chemistry to keep things moving of 100 Days.

I also think that it fundamentally ignores that the selling points of both formats (as well as being contradictory) were that they were appointment-to-view programmes that supplemented the rest of the schedule. I do see the logic of wanting to replicate success, but it's that typical TV executive mindset of 'that works, so let's make everything that', ignoring the fact that the lesson is almost always 'that only worked because not everything was that'.

There's a place for discussion, there's a place for actually going in-depth on a few stories, but it just isn't all day, everyday. A lot of the time, what you want from a news channel is just the news - simply, concisely and visually explained.

[Marcell]

I just don't get the persistent 'anti-background sounds' lobby that seems to exist here. Not saying they're wrong - everyone is entitled to their opinion of course - just that I don't get it.

I think these things *add to* the broadcast and bring texture and reality.

It was raining in Manchester, and it was raining where I am just down the road, so it brought a connection and underlined that it was live coverage from location.

I also think that the buzz of a newsroom with the occasional shout or bang brings something to a broadcast rather than being a distraction.

I'm not against the background noise from the newsroom, it's more the background that bothers me. Using the old Outside Source / Weather screen doesn't look too great.

[ViridianFan]

I will admit that I’m only occasionally putting the channel on anymore whereas I’d have it playing all day before, but the pace is just awful. As others said outside source and 100days worked because they were different to the rest of the schedule. 

I used to really enjoy outside source when Ros was on the balcony because even though you’d spend longer on one story the whole show felt it had a good pace because each way the story was looked at it as short and snappy plus Ros’ own presenting style helped. 100 days worked because of the relationship between Katy and Christian.  I know an budgets wouldn’t allow it now, but it showed the difference double heading can make. 

I will hold my hands up and admit I can be one of those who doesn’t get the need for whoever is presenting the news to be live from the location. Clive in Kyiv was very different as he was “living” the experience but a lot of the time the presenter being there doesn’t add anything as it’s the reporter leading the story who ends up stood next to them where it could all be done down the line and allow the report to almost take on the presenter role at that point (in my head that made sense but I don’t think I’ve worded it in the best way!)

The reporting from the newsroom just annoys me. It’s not as if they’re presenting from their desk they’re walking to a presentation area, just walk into the studio. If you want to make it look more like they’ve just stopped to tell us this get them to walk through the door at the side of the studio to give the impression this is all actively happening. 

Having never watched world pre-merger I can’t comment on the balance of stories, but looking at it through my “BBC News channel (old) and BBC world are no more, it’s BBC News channel (v2)” glasses it feels from the times I’m dropping in very much to be swings and roundabouts. I put it one day and it did feel very much of UK focus that day, but then a few days later in inadvertently put the context on and it was so overly USA focused that I did wonder if it had been similar stories based in the UK that there would have been people on here commenting about the amount of time a run of UK focus story got. 

It’s a difficult balancing act because they’ve got to keep world viewers happy to keep that revenue stream going but they’ve equally got to keep the UK Government and UK license fee payers happy because without them the whole corporation gets carved up and sold to the highest bidder and then we slip into the world of keeping shareholders happy and cutting costs to keep profits up to payout to share holders. 

As DTV and many others have said before, the format of the hour needs looking at. I definitely think at the top of the hour it should be 10/15mins covering all too stories with a briefer 5 mins on the half hour to give viewers an overview of what’s happening that day. We discussed before the radio news do a good job at this. There could even be then the possibility that the person who is there to do the UK opt out could do an opt out there with more UK focuses stories before returning to the combined studio for the remaining half hour

(Sorry it’s a long one but not been on and catching up on the conversation my mind  started bubbling away)

[ALV]

All BOTH recorded programmes on both UK and World feed have been pre-empted this morning from 1000-1330 to cover the World Cup Final.

I struggle to see the reasoning on why the World feed has to jump on board of the rolling coverage... At the very most this would've just warranted for a UK opt out. Seems like we're not going to see "other news" being reported until at least 1330. I don't think this is a "resource" issue on the weekends because it's clearly a planned event and they could've prepared an opt out team for today...

Also, since the coverage is on the World feed, they don't have the rights to broadcast live/recorded footage of the game. It's a bit... "painful" to hear them narrate with their best on what's happening on the field with only still pictures or a live shot of the outside of the arena. I suppose if this was a UK opt out this would've give them the rights to broadcast the game on the NC UK feed?

[Rolling News]

What's the point in that - anyone who wants to watch it will be watching it.

Again - what’s the point?    

[Brekkie]

Ludicrous decision - bad enough on the UK feed but World is just dumb.

Ditching Outside Source was a real mistake - it was a show that sat comfortably on World and UK and was really building momentum. Ros Atkins may have a new role but it seems to be now largely off screen just creating the clips that were previously lifted from the live broadcast.

[Radio_man]

The rolling coverage of the World Cup is not just irrelevant to viewers on the World feed this morning. Many viewers in Wales, Scotland & NI may feel alienated by this blanket coverage of the football.
If Scotland, Wales or Ireland had got into the World Cup final, would the combined channel be rolling with coverage?
If you don't like football or don't support England, today is another day to avoid BBC News it seems.

[Reith85]

I still don't understand how anyone involved in the visual / graphical look of the BBC News (merged) channel thinks that that bright, bright red lower third news strap is a good "look". I'm not an expert or an industry professional - I'm just a humble viewer - but it's so blindingly bright that I often wonder if it's an issue with my contrast controls on my television set. Maybe I'm missing the point - i.e. it's meant to stand out visually - but when you get it displayed for non-breaking news, it makes any genuine breaking news come across as redundant.

[Marcell]

I was thinking yesterday that there's actually a sort of weird logic behind the format and some of the presentation changes. When you consider that two of either channel's most successful formats in recent years (especially in terms of social media traction) have been latter-era Outside Source and (Beyond) 100 Days, it makes some sort of sense to try and export those formats - which already work for both audiences - across the schedule.

But the problem is, they've tried to hybridise two very different formats and have ended up with a camel that doesn't really work. You're left with the slowed story pace of both, but without the detailed step-by-step analysis of a good Ros Atkins' explainer or the presenter chemistry to keep things moving of 100 Days.

I also think that it fundamentally ignores that the selling points of both formats (as well as being contradictory) were that they were appointment-to-view programmes that supplemented the rest of the schedule. I do see the logic of wanting to replicate success, but it's that typical TV executive mindset of 'that works, so let's make everything that', ignoring the fact that the lesson is almost always 'that only worked because not everything was that'.

There's a place for discussion, there's a place for actually going in-depth on a few stories, but it just isn't all day, everyday. A lot of the time, what you want from a news channel is just the news - simply, concisely and visually explained.

I usually watch Al Jazeera and know that during any hour I can either get a 30 minute bulletin, a quick summary at the TOTH or the Newshour.

I'm not interested in constant deep analysis on a single topic.

I just want to dip in for a bit, get the main stories and dip out.