11-10-2022, 12:31 AM
(10-10-2022, 11:15 PM)Radio_man Wrote: If the proposals for the UK side of this new channel had been the original proposal for News 24 in 1997, I'm sure News 24 never would've made it past the proposal stage.
Comparisons between now and the launch proposals back in 1997 are kind of fascinating. At launch, the channel was sort of the 'idealised' public service news channel - not just general news every hour, but daily programmes and segments on sport, science and technology, European politics and entertainment news. At weekends you had 4-hour sports blocks and, from mid-1998, two daily BBC World News bulletins and two programmes covering stories from the UK regional newsrooms. It may, by many accounts, have been slightly shambolic in execution, but, on paper, it was really what a BBC News channel should be doing - supplementing what was on BBC One and Two by providing depth and range that was not available on the main channels. Just imagine what such a channel would look like today!
Sadly, though, the history of BBC News 24/BBC News has basically been that idealised vision being chipped away bit-by-bit. The journey from a supplementary service through to a blander but useful rolling news service through to one that, it seems like, will largely offer up programming that is available elsewhere - a channel serving only those who have lost their remote.