[interestednovice]

Part of the problem then is that trying to provide context to international viewers may make it look patronising to UK audiences- it's an issue it's going to be very, very hard to properly balance when you're broadcasting to both UK and international viewers.  And even with context, most international viewers aren't going to care about the story anyway and will be annoyed it's taking up so much airtime. This really has shown up just how difficult, if not impossible, it's going to be to properly handle major stories of UK interest but limited to zero interest for international viewers on a merged channel. The Lineker story is one that likely wouldn't have been anywhere near BBC World pre-merger, now it's taking up half their airtime.

This sort of situation is why the merged channel is likely to fall apart quite quickly after a there's been a few major UK stories and inadequate handling that will likely annoy both UK and international viewers. Adding context for international viewers will make UK viewers feel they're being talked to like children, not enough coverage of major (or even minor) UK stories will make UK viewers annoyed, UK stories of zero foreign interest will annoy international viewers, it's never going to work. UK viewers want to know what's going on at home, international viewers will turn off at UK stories about people, places and companies they've never heard of. It's like merging Radios 1 and 3 and expecting it to work.

Exactly, and I haven’t mentioned it so far as I didn’t want to give the BBC any ideas, but there is a reason why they have Radio 4, Radio 5 Live and BBC World Service, plus new services of differing tones on other radio stations (from simple updates on Radio 3, to youth-focused Newsbeat on Radio 1).

This merger of WN and NC is rather like attempting to merge Radio 4, Radio 5 and World Service - with Radio 4 and 5 being opt-outs from the World Service. It’s as absurd as that!

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There's lot of focus on presenters and studios, but the actual costs of presenters and studio production staff is only going to run into a few million - the bulk of cuts are coming from newsgathering and the reduction in location reporting, contributor costs, etc.

Frankly, this is as worrying as the concerns about unacceptable output for World and NC audiences going out.

It’s also why the supposed “alternatives” of the BBC News website and bulletins on BBC One are also not covering the proper extent of stories of the former News division setup. It’s very concerning when News is the most important thing the BBC does.