[Matrix]

Couple of things: no region is double headed anymore. We went through a fairly painful exercise in ‘rationalisation’ a few years back on that front.

Secondly, I think there is a bigger context this needs to be set in. The BBC, rightly or wrongly, is preparing itself for a day when the primary concern is income. Some will argue that should be/ is already but the merger is a clear indication that the World outcome is where the commercial opportunities lie.

It has been a torrid few years and there is genuinely quite a demoralised attitude but I can see how these measures at least keep the idea of *a* news channel on the table, albeit with a slightly uncertain editorial focus.

[IanJRedman]

Has this been posted yet?

Petition by Clean Feed:

www.change.org 

Petition · Save the BBC News Channel from Closure · Change.org
In July 2022, the BBC announced plans to merge the largely UK-focused BBC News C…
  Source: www.change.org

[Allanbuzzy]

In my mind, I'm constantly thinking this will be something more akin to Sky News, since that channel is also international. But then I realise that Sky also cover a lot of UK based news stories, and given it's presence in the US, such as on Pluto TV and on Peacock, having a window to UK news stories is still beneficial in some regard, and obviously international news is broadcast instead of commercials.

My concern is that the BBC may have a balancing issue with this newly merged international channel. Yes, you have got channels like CNN and France 24 who essentially do what the BBC is hoping to do with this merged channel, but the difference being that most of those channels I mentioned are funded by advertising, if not by cable and satellite providers. BBC News is unique in the fact that it is paid for by a license fee, so is it any fair that money, given to the BBC from the UK, is being spent on news that doesn't relate to them or not relevant enough for British audiences? Why should UK news be shoved to commercials, vice versa with how Sky News does it internationally for countries that aren't the UK?

[all new phil]

I think the point that is continually missed, however, is that we don’t *need* a news channel to give us UK-focused coverage. Throughout the course of the day we have Breakfast, Politics Live, News at 1, News at 6 and News at 10 giving domestic news coverage, alongside 5 Live, the website, the app, their Twitter feeds…

The BBC is moving away from the idea of having a rolling UK-specific news channel, but that doesn’t mean there’ll be no more domestic news covered anywhere. It makes perfect sense to have an international-focused news channel fitting alongside all of this, and those scrambling to point out what gaps there’ll be in the coverage from that one outlet in isolation are missing the point and the bigger picture entirely.

[Josh]

All of Martine's tweets regarding the merger seem to have been deleted. How bizarre.

[Newsroom]

All of Martine's tweets regarding the merger seem to have been deleted. How bizarre.

Ugh

Well that's worrying. She hasn't the standard 'views are personal and not that of any employee'. I don't know what the BBC's inside rules are regarding Social media but was taken aback by how forthcoming her was even though I thought she was brilliant and brave in doing so.

[Keith]

All of Martine's tweets regarding the merger seem to have been deleted. How bizarre.

Ugh

Well that's worrying. She hasn't the standard 'views are personal and not that of any employee'. I don't know what the BBC's inside rules are regarding Social media but was taken aback by how forthcoming her was even though I thought she was brilliant and brave in doing so.

The guidelines are online at www.bbc.co.uk . Based on those guidelines her series of tweets had the potential to be in breach of them.

Guidance: Individual Use of Social Media - Editorial Guidelines
Guidance note - Individual Use of Social Media
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[Steve in Pudsey]

I believe that Martine is the NUJ rep at NBH. You would have thought that the BBC would be doing everything possible to stop this becoming an indistrial dispute - it would presumably be awkward editorially for somebody involved in such a dispute to interview the likes of Mick Lynch in an impartial way.

[thomalex]

Must admit I was quite surprised to see Martine speaking so publicly about this, things must have reached a head internally.

Essentially the BBC is removing its domestic rolling news service and returning to flagship bulletins, and personally I'm fine with that. News 24 launched in a very different landscape and people now get their 24/7 news in other ways. Breakfast, the 1, 6, 10 and Newsnight is plenty of news and more focus will be put on these programmes. They will be able to throw to a separate domestic broadcast should there be significant breaking news and outside of that you will have the option of following the news on the app, website, or with a more global perspective on the News channel. In the UK at least you will actually have more options than you do now!

Things don't need to continue because they always have been that way, well since 1997 at least, and it will be interesting to see how it all works.

[Former Member 406]

Was just trying to work out what the balance of the proposed "new" UK news channel will be (on weekdays, at least)...

Simulcasts of UK programmes = 7h10m/7h* (Breakfast 3hrs, Nicky Campbell 2hrs, the News at One/Six/Ten totalling 90mins, Newsnight 40mins/30mins*). (*10-minute-shorter Newsnight on Fridays).

So, that's 16h50m/17h of "World" simulcasting per weekday (apart from the few minutes per hour of bits & bobs to replace the overseas commercial breaks), and presumably much more on weekends & bank holidays.

I can see them reducing Newsnight to 30mins every day, so that it doesn't ride roughshod over the 23:00 TOTH on the NC, needing an awkward opt-in circa 23:10 into whatever World content is already underway.

But will it really be "just" a simulcast of World (minus ad breaks) during that 70-ish% of the day? Or might there be a fair degree of the UK getting different stuff in at least some of the Back half-hours (e.g. the main edition of Sportsday at 6:30pm)???