[DTV]

I have to say the cautious optimism I had earlier in the day has disappeared as it went on. Although Hockings' shift was fairly reasonably balanced (about 30-40% UK news during shared output and with key world news taking priority), the afternoon shifts have been far more skewed in favour of UK news - some have featured majority domestic news stories and the 17:00 hour was well into the 60-70% bracket of a typical unsimulcast BBC News channel hour, featuring only four non-UK stories (including just one in the back-half). It really did seem that they had forgotten they were going out internationally.

A real part of the problem seems to be pacing - some of the afternoon hours were interminably slow - the 17:00 hour featured just six stories in its first half, one of which was just in passing. This is something that has definitely got worse in recent years, but is something they really should look at - not least as fitting in more stories will allow more of the world to get covered, while allowing more UK stories in and meaning that the ones of dubious international relevance (which today included Raab's bullying allegations, northern train delays and fire services strike) stick out less. News in Brief segments - including maybe a UK in Brief and an Around the World in Brief segment - would really help out here (I only saw one today).