25-03-2023, 02:19 PM
People will quickly start to notice if they “put BBC News on” and find that the big “news story” they were expecting is not covered at all!
That is exactly the kind of scenario I am envisaging if the channel is World-focused and not domestic (it’s usually big domestic stories where people do this).
However, I do believe that having a world focus, as opposed to a parochial UK focus padded out with radio filler, is the correct approach.
The BBC seem to be going for a totally undesirable fudge in the middle ground that pleases nobody, but disappoints everybody. Very badly handled in my view!
Really, the BBC should have been upfront about deciding to close the NC due to budgetary constraints (I think it’s arguable that cuts should have come elsewhere, but that’s another debate: the decision has been made) and simply broadcast BBC WN, unchanged, in the UK. There is no point to simulcasts at all and it is not a good idea to downgrade the profitable WN product - that is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. To make it clear that the channel was now distinctly WN, they should have kept the BBC WN name and used that “in the UK and around the World”, to use one of their phrases!
That is exactly the kind of scenario I am envisaging if the channel is World-focused and not domestic (it’s usually big domestic stories where people do this).
However, I do believe that having a world focus, as opposed to a parochial UK focus padded out with radio filler, is the correct approach.
The BBC seem to be going for a totally undesirable fudge in the middle ground that pleases nobody, but disappoints everybody. Very badly handled in my view!
Really, the BBC should have been upfront about deciding to close the NC due to budgetary constraints (I think it’s arguable that cuts should have come elsewhere, but that’s another debate: the decision has been made) and simply broadcast BBC WN, unchanged, in the UK. There is no point to simulcasts at all and it is not a good idea to downgrade the profitable WN product - that is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. To make it clear that the channel was now distinctly WN, they should have kept the BBC WN name and used that “in the UK and around the World”, to use one of their phrases!