[Kojak]

I used to be a frequent viewer off BBC world news but I think it’s fair to say the past 8 years I’ve watched very little of the channel… just spent the past couple days watching and I do have to stay there are so many structural flaws in the way all the bulletins are. It appears very messy as if everything is just hacked together.

I was going to list a few ways the bulletins could tidy themselves up but I’d be here all week. However the only real thing that bothers me most are the lengthy and tiring toth sequences.

Reduce them to 50seconds or so were the headline bed actually has timed thunderclaps with a pitch change, not just restarting the bed for the next headline.

After the final thunderclap they could say. “This is BBC News from *location* I’m xxx xxx, also in the programme…” after the titles… “it’s 5pm in *uk place name* and 10pm *where top story is happening*

I miss these days of timed toths, that never dragged out.

youtube.com 

youtube.com 

youtube.com 

These short n sharp toths ended when BBC World moved to N8 studio and got longer when they relaunched in NBH

Also bring back sport and business stings during the bulletin?

This is not unique to World News, it's happened across BBC News bulletins over the last decade. The 1/6/10 headline sequences often have vox pops as well, and can take up to 2 minutes. I often get so bored of the headline sequence, if I've recorded the bulletin to watch later, I'll just skip the headline sequence altogether.

It's not only the BBC - ITV are just as bad, particularly on News at Ten. And foreign broadcasters do it, too. The Flemish VTM is especially bad - often every headline will have a SOT. It seems to be something of a worldwide trend.

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Weekends (where 1000-0600 is simulcasted with NC, 20 hours of simulcast!)

How long have whole weekends (apart from Breakfast) been a simulcast? I remember years ago, whenever there was studio maintenance, it would be a big deal (at least on these forums) for World and 24 to join up for the weekend. The first half of each hour would be a rigid World-style bulletin, then the back half hours continued in the N24 style.