[Kojak]

It’s been nearly a month now since the two channels merged (two months, if we count that weird interim in March). I have to wonder what the overall consensus is here, now that the new arrangements have bedded in a little?

I will say that whilst I completely disagreed with the closure of News 24 (and still do!), I am not completely disappointed with the new ‘World 24’, if we want to call it that. I think the coverage of Sudan over the past few days has been exemplary, and I’d like much more in that vein, please! The UK opts are really quite decent considering the sheer lack of resources (though they’re obviously not as good as the old news channel, and probably won’t be for a long time).

There is ample room for improvement, though.  The simulcasts are generally not needed, in my opinion, unless they are signed. Just give us the world feed and have done with it. I think people would understand the demarcations between the bulletins and the news channel. And PLEASE stop opting into Newsday at 23:10 each weeknight. It’s rough and just looks slack - not even GB News would do that. 

Could we also do away with the ‘Around the UK’ segments? Just have the presenter read out some UK news in brief during world’s ad breaks - or even get the balcony person to do it. Again, the current arrangements look a bit slack. 

All is not lost, though - I suspect the new arrangements are here to stay, so they might as well make the best of them. I’m sure there are many ideas being thought up about how to improve everything - let’s hope they begin to be put into practice.