[Worzel]

The idea that viewing figures for the channel are going to collapse significantly is one of the those 'inside the bubble' attitudes that is unlikely to be reflected in reality. Viewing figures for the former The Papers slots have fallen because they were one of the few appointment-to-view programmes on the channel (with direct competition) and have been replaced with typical back-half filler. Cutting The Papers was probably a mistake, but it shouldn't be taken as representative of the channel. As far as I'm aware, the simulcasts in the evening since 2015 have not negatively impacted viewership.

Is the merged channel ideal? No. Could the BBC be reasonably be doing more in terms of separate output? Yes. But will it be such a massive change as to it be reasonable for the BBC to have no news channel in the UK? No.

Fundamentally, all the major 'switch on the News channel' events are still going to be covered on the new channel. And in terms of the general hour, I'm more expecting a World/UK balance somewhere in the region of the current 10:00 hour. I could be wrong, but quite frankly I really don't think the BBC has the balls to do anything more radical (from the perspective of the UK viewer). Turness' recent comments about wanting more UK news on the channel have only solidified my expectation that the crappy compromise hour is the future.

Nail. On. Head. As for my views. Do I WANT this to be happening? God, no. It’s an absolute travesty that it’s even come to this. But we are we are. Dozens of millions of pounds worth of cuts have led to this. If a news channel absolutely MUST be cut, it should probably be 24. After all, we have the bulletins, Breakfast, Radio 4/5 Live and so forth. The rest of the world doesn’t have any of that - just BBC World. 

Though, that being the case, I do think we ought to get the full-fat World feed, rather than crappy halfway houses or constant opt outs just to shove a camera in the Five Live studio or repeat Newsnight. (Though - perhaps counterintuitively - I do think 1/6/10 should be simulcast WITH SIGN LANGUAGE, an important public service I’d argue is somewhat neglected by the Beeb). 

So - keep World (or News, as it will be known) for international coverage, and the network bulletins/radio/website for UK events. I think that’s about as good a compromise as we’d get.

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Surely SKY News is a few decades out of date?

All the cool kids call it $ky News now. Or if you’re dead hip, Sly News. 

Not 'Old Sky Snooze' then...

Virgin viewers will remember that one!