24-09-2022, 06:11 PM
(24-09-2022, 10:37 AM)Radio_man Wrote: Is it usual for World and the NC to simulcast on Saturday mornings? "Off peak" simulcasts at weekends are getting more and more frequent now. It seems whenever there are presumably staff issues, it's now a case of just go into simulcasting. I don't think that would've happened pre-2020. Weekdays 9 - 10am and 11am - 6pm seem to be the only hours left that are 'protected' from simulcasting (unless there's a major news story, such as Ukraine or the Royals)
I caught some of the 9pm hour last night, UK viewers tuning in would've wondered why on earth the Chancellor was being referred to as the "UK Finance minister"
A taste of things to come
The NC and WN have been simulcasting the weekend 9AM - 1PM slot ever since the schedule changes for Covid staffing problems back in March 2020 (I'm not sure if the BBC One lunchtime national bulletin will also be simulcasted on WN if it's scheduled at 12PM nowadays?). This allow them to cut WN's weekend morning shift and save money.
With the BBC planning to further cut costs and merge NC and WN next year, I highly doubt they will revert the decision and add back the shift so to allow NC and WN separate outputs on weekend mornings~
IMO I think the WN's morning shift pre-Covid is a big waste of money. If you take a look at the weekend morning schedule pre-Covid you'll notice it's filled with only 5/10 minute live bulletins every hour (even though the schedule says 10 minutes but some bulletins are 5 minutes with no titles). That means you're having a team of presenter, director, and producer not producing any live output for 50 minutes every hour every weekend morning~ I think it makes sense to just cut it and simulcast with NC.