[Kojak]

It’s absolutely true that the programme was, in many ways, the opposite to The Context. Extended intelligent debates rather than political soundbites and faux-analysis.

That’s probably why it was cut - extended intelligent debates don’t translate well into short social media clips. It’s all about getting buzz on socials these days.

[DTV]

I’d like to see how the per-hour cost of The Context compares to Dateline London.

It's difficult to know without knowing the appearance fee rates for The Context, but I would imagine that, per hour produced, they probably are relatively similar. Talk is cheap - I can't imagine that it has much (or even any) in the way of a dedicated production team and the gallery and studio team would be there anyway.

If we assume an appearance fee rate of about £500 per guest for The Context and include Fraser's salary (i.e., assuming he wouldn't be employed otherwise), it works out at about £2,000 per hour produced. A higher appearance rate of £1,000 would drive costs up to about £3,000 per hour, but if the fee is lower, e.g., £200, it's only about £1,500 an hour. Dateline London would be around £3,000 per hour produced, but it is repeated - so, per hour of television, is lower.

[Chud]

Talking of cost, I’m surprised the travel show and all those filler programmes haven’t had the chop, as filling the back half hour with the on air presenter is cheaper? Or do we think filler programmes are a good thing for the news channel?

[DTV]

Talking of cost, I’m surprised the travel show and all those filler programmes haven’t had the chop, as filling the back half hour with the on air presenter is cheaper? Or do we think filler programmes are a good thing for the news chann?

Personally, I'd prefer more news at weekends, but the fillers must be somewhat cost-effective or they would've been axed a while back (though World are actually scaling back fillers a bit from April). The Travel Show is probably one of the more expensive to produce, but I believe the world versions are sponsored and have in the past carried product placement - so their costs must be commercially covered somewhat. Click and Talking Movies are similar.

I certainly do think more could be done with weekends and it's a little odd that cheap-as-chips stuff like Reporters and Dateline London have gone, but there are certainly other directions they could take things in - I know they hinted at new sports programming last year, I wouldn't be surprised if this involved something on Saturday afternoon back-halves.

[interestednovice]

As DTV outlines, I’m sure it’s the fact these programmes can be repeated that makes them cost effective. Add in the fact that a typical WN (and now simulcast channel) format is 25 minute bulletins at the weekend, and you can have much longer shifts due to natural “breaks” for the presenter as the pre-recorded programmes are aired.

This probably adds up to a significant saving over the course of the day as those breaks in live news will also be giving gallery staff, floor managers and so on equivalent breaks too - so everybody’s shift can be made longer, for no real extra pay. Also, relatively few events tend to happen at the weekend anyway - so extended bulletins would end being light on content, most likely, and require padding out. You might as well have a shorter bulletin, then a back-half show of interest to the sort of people who watch the NC anyway.

Kojak is right about social media, I’m sure; but really traditional media needs to be the “anti social media”, a place for trusted analysis and facts - not speculation and spats over this side vs that.

[oscillon]

With the merger happening in 5 days, I think it's about time the NaO officially moves to B. Hope this will be a permanent move...

And they returned to E today, so no permanency for now. I wonder if they will continue to use Studio E for News at One even after the new channel launches from C, in case they do not immediately start refurbising E. (They are still very vague about it.)

[GraemeT88]

Bbc sport centre was on the nations and regions wall end of the 10 tonight. That’s a first?

[Stuart]

Bbc sport centre was on the nations and regions wall end of the 10 tonight. That’s a first?

No, it's been there quite some time since the demise of Cambridge and Oxford opts messed up the full matrix.

Very often BBC Sport has nobody sat at the desk and the set isn't fully lit. I'm not sure why they include it, as it's hardly a 'nation' or 'region'. Trundle Cam has also appeared in the past to fill a gap in the wall.

[oscillon]

Bbc sport centre was on the nations and regions wall end of the 10 tonight. That’s a first?

No, it is been there for some time - after they axed two regions, they have to cover the curved wall with something, so they put Sports studio there as well.
In case an additional region fails to provide output for the wall, they put the feed from the camera overlooking NBH on the wall as well.

UPD. Actually, I realised that they did the above after regions axing on the 6, and on the 10 they put Studio C with The Papers presenter... until, well, Papers met the axe, Sports bulletin was shifted to 10:33pm and got on the screen during the 10 as well.

[Andrew]

Bbc sport centre was on the nations and regions wall end of the 10 tonight. That’s a first?

No, it's been there quite some time since the demise of Cambridge and Oxford opts messed up the full matrix.

Very often BBC Sport has nobody sat at the desk and the set isn't fully lit. I'm not sure why they include it, as it's hardly a 'nation' or 'region'. Trundle Cam has also appeared in the past to fill a gap in the wall.

I still wish they’d fill the most right hand column with something, anything, maybe even duplicating one of the regions twice