[interestednovice]

In reality, that’s a deliberate feature of the BBC’s self-coverage, as it can thereby demonstrate clear impartiality in the sense that it can’t be accused of “burying” a story. Admittedly, it sometimes goes “too far the other way” with stuff like this, as the W1A joke implied.

Some also see it as naval gazing or inappropriate for the BBC to spend too much time reporting on itself. I’m sure plenty of people thought they shouldn’t have bothered to report on Ken Bruce leaving the corporation recently, for example, but the fact is lots of other media outlets reported it - so it was legitimate news.

The BBC is essentially damned if they do; damned if they don’t with this - like with many thorny issues.

To bring it back to the NC: I can’t help feeling that the same logic applies. As other posters have said, simply “proper” World News without arguably “silly” opt-outs for the sake of “claiming” extra “UK news coverage” would be better. Yet if the BBC did that, they would be in trouble with Ofcom and the press. They claim to be unable to fund the service as it was (they, theoretically, could have done of course, but it would have meant deep and unpopular cuts elsewhere - they should have done that in my view as at least then they could have claimed they were prioritising important, uniquely PSB output) so something had to give. In the end, we end up in a sort of limbo - a halfway house proposal which could well end up being the worst of all worlds.

BBC World News neutered, to appease license-fee payers in the UK who want domestic news, it’s profitability therefore threatened - and a potential threat to the quality and reputation of the BBC’s global journalism. The “UK news” deeply unsatisfying and often irrelevant, such as Nicky Campbell’s show; many viewers would prefer a normal bulletin even if entirely world-focused. A channel which is a mess, and serves neither the UK nor World viewer properly. But it suits the “politics” of the BBC: it gets the press off their backs, it pacifies Ofcom and it allows the BBC to claim that they “serve both audiences” through “one channel, two streams”.