[DTV]

Does anyone know when BBC World moved into N8 in 2008? I don’t think they did on the 21st of April as N24 was using it up until that day and it was refurbished. I’ve seen a clip from July 2008 and they were in N8 then, so presumably sometime between April and July

The refurbished N8 set debuted at 05:00 UKT on 7th July 2008, exactly 11 weeks after BBC World News rebranded. This also coincided with a small schedule change on the channel (primarily the launching of Mishal Husain's edition of World News Today). I believe that N9 continued to be used for overnights for a week longer, before being mothballed.

BBC World News' set changes over the years:
October 1993: Moved to N1
October 1998: Moved to N9
3rd April 2000: First 'cream and red' main set
April 2001: Sport Today set added
27th August 2001: Second 'cream and red' main set
11th March 2002: BBC (Four) News second set added
12th January 2004: The World second set replaces BBC (Four) News set
12th September 2004: Sport Today set removed
15th November 2004: 'Light-up' main set
25th April 2005: New second set desk
3rd July 2006: Second set enlarged
7th July 2008: Moved to refurbished N8 set
14th July 2008: Overnights move to N8, N9 is mothballed
January/February 2010: N8 set is refreshed in stages
14th January 2013: 12:00-19:00 moves to NBH-B, 19:00-02:00; 08:00-12:00 moves to NBH-C
28th January 2013: 02:00-08:00 moves to NBH-C
18th May 2018: Side screens replaced in NBH-C
2nd May 2019: Tracking camera installed over 'soft' area LED screen in NBH-B
18th March 2020: 12:00-19:00 moves to NBH-C

[DTV]

For posterity, here's the same for network BBC News

Early 1988: One and Nine come from N2, Six from N1 and daytime summaries from the Newsroom set (via N2's gallery). Breakfast News comes from Lime Grove.
31st October 1988: Nine and Weekend move to a remodelled Newsroom set.
Late 1988: Breakfast News moves to TC2.
13th April 1993: All BBC network news (including Breakfast News) moves to N2.
2nd June 1997: Breakfast News moves to TC7, with new shared set with Newsnight.
(2nd) November 1998: BBC News bulletins move to a partially rebuilt set in N6.
10th May 1999: 'Cream and red' set debuts.
2nd October 2000: BBC Breakfast launches with 'cream and red' set in TC7 (though weekends come from N24 studio until move to Salford).
1st October 2001: Thick red bar painted on right-hand side of N6 set.
2nd December 2001: 'Cream and red' set is significantly remodelled, including new desk and red panelling.
(16th) September 2002: Daytime summaries move to CSO set in N6.
18th November 2002: Breakfast's set is refreshed, with a red (and cream) sofa for the first time.
20th January 2003: New 'light-up' set is launched.
(30th) June 2003: Breakfast gets new set (the two coffee tables are replaced by a single 'figure of eight' one the following January)
11th April 2005: New newsroom backdrop in N6, with red and frosted panelling added to glass barrier in front of it.
18th April 2006: National news set moved to TC7.
2nd May 2006: National news and Breakfast return to new Barco set in N6. Daytime summaries return to main set.
7th January 2008: 8PM summary launched from TC7.
4th February 2008: Breakfast, Six and Ten move to TC7, One and Weekend move to N8, Daytime move to N10.
21st April 2008: One, Ten and Weekend News return to refurbished N6 Barco set.
2nd March 2009: Breakfast receives new newsroom backdrop and set is relit, but existing furniture is retained.
22nd March 2010: News at Six gets new desk (shared with Newsnight) in TC7.
10th April 2012: Breakfast moves to Salford regional news studio.
15th March 2013: Last daytime news summaries.
18th March 2013: All BBC Network bulletins are united again in NBH-E, 8PM summary moves to NBH-A (this may have happened earlier in the year).
30th May 2018: Final 8PM summary.
14th October 2018: Breakfast adopt new Salford Quays backdrop.
13th June 2022: BBC News at Ten moves to new set in NBH-B, News at Six follows next day and Sunday Late the following Sunday.

And for BBC News 24/BBC News channel:

9th November 1997: BBC News 24 launches from N9 (though it isn't named that until later).
(4th) September 1998: Moves to new set in N8 overlooking the new newsroom.
25th October 1999: 'Cream and red' main set debuts (second set doesn't appear for a few weeks).
December 2001: Red panelling is added to set.
29th April 2002: N8's set is partially remodelled, with extra panelling added, larger plasmas, changes to the newsroom area, new second set.
13th October 2003: News 24 moves to multi-camera CSO set-up in TC10 (N1), had spent the prior weekend simulcasting with World in N9.
8th December 2003: Return to N8, with new three-zone 'light-up' set. Sport updates move to N8, rather than own 'studio'.
21st April 2008: Move to refurbed N6 Barco set, except for 21:30-22:00 half-hour which moves to N9 (and then N8 from July).
28th May 2009: Business updates move to N6 from London Stock Exchange studio.
4th January 2010: N6 is now lit red and white for News channel as well as Network bulletins.
5th March 2012: Sport updates move to own studio in Salford.
18th March 2013: Move to NBH-E, except for 17:00 hour (NBH-C) and 21:00 hour (NBH-A).
7th October 2017: Larger side screens installed.

[DTV]

On a separate note, I managed to stumble across the 1999 Review of BBC News output on the web archive. It's quite interesting to see how many of the proposals were and weren't implemented.

web.archive.org 

Untitled

  Source: web.archive.org

A lot of the smaller format changes happened, many as part of the 'cream and red' rebrand, but many of the new programmes didn't appear. I don't think that BBC Choice ever got its daily Sport bulletin, The Gallery (a late-night parliamentary review intended to replace The Midnight Hour and The Record) didn't materialise, nor did a BBC Two programme covering EU and European politics or a BBC Two programme focussing on policy analysis. Of course, BBC political output was subject to its own review a few years later (which had far less 'high-brow' intent than improved coverage of Europe or policy).

[DTV]

Just to return to the studio changes, and this is a question that I'm sure that itsrobert can answer, I was never able to pin down the exact shift from overnights coming from the main N24/NC studio and the main World studio. I have a feeling it was in April 2008 when NC moved into N6, but have never found a definitive source. There are obvious exceptions - The World Today/Euro Breakfast shift always came from the World studio and I get the impression that N9 overnights in the N24 era were not as rare as N6/Studio E in the NC era - but my rough estimation is that the core overnight service was like this:

11/1997 - 09/1998: N9
09/1998 - 04/2008: N8
04/2008 - 07/2008: N9
07/2008 - 01/2013: N8
01/2013 - xx/2023: NBH-C

[DTV]

A few months back, I managed to compile BBC World News schedules from across the ages into a single timeline graphic. I've now tried the same with the BBC News channel. Admittedly, it is less interesting - particularly the 2008-2015 period. Possibly because of this, it was even harder to find schedules for older years than it was for BBC World. Other than a brief period in late-2001, I haven't been able to find any full schedules for the channnel between early 1999 and late 2003 - this has made it hard to precisely date the phasing out of the flag era programming, some of which (UK Today, Europe Direct and Zero 30) definitely continued until at least early 2000.

BBC News: Nostalgia
Presentation Programmes News Mass Media Websites Gallery Requests Multiview Sear…
  Source: tvliveforum.com

I have been able to get some details from partial schedules overlayed onto countdowns and from the TV Forum archives, but there are still some gaps. As the margin of error with dates was large with some of them, I've just left them in - hoping that somebody might be able to help. I should also note that this version is 'smoothed' - I've taken out US timeshifts and short-run temporary programmes (e.g. Election related programmes). If I can plug enough of the gaps, I'll finish off a more detailed version, including changes in branding.

Anyway, here it is...



You might need to zoom in a bit to read it!

[JLav25]

Just seen this clip from the night before Diana's funeral. I seem to recall conversations on the previous forums whether a Woman ever presented the Nine O'Clock News in the Virtual Era, and I know this is a summary rather than the bulletin, but Maxine Mawhinney is presenting in the Darker set here www.youtube.com 

[Steve in Pudsey]

For posterity rather then pedantry - wasn't the 8pm from NBH-A so the same studio could do the national bit and the London opt? Some Mosart trickery allowed Studio A to play a pre-recorded weather forecast to NC1 while the studio did the London opt live.

[DTV]

For posterity rather then pedantry - wasn't the 8pm from NBH-A so the same studio could do the national bit and the London opt? Some Mosart trickery allowed Studio A to play a pre-recorded weather forecast to NC1 while the studio did the London opt live.

Yes, apologies, that certainly rings a bell. Though does that mean that, after they ditched the Nine, they were firing up A solely for the 8pm summary?

[Tom]

Some coverage from BBC News on 7th July 2005 with some of the rolling coverage from that day and the start of the 1 O'Clock News with a very rare apperance from Huw on the 1 (note presented from Westminster).

www.youtube.com 

[itsrobert]

Some coverage from BBC News on 7th July 2005 with some of the rolling coverage from that day and the start of the 1 O'Clock News with a very rare apperance from Huw on the 1 (note presented from Westminster).

www.youtube.com 

Huw appearing on the One O'clock News was only rare after the May 1999 rebrand. Before then, he was a fairly regular presenter at lunchtime as well as co-presenter on the Six. He also sometimes presented Breakfast News in the 90s.