[DTV]

What I protest to is having a service which is not on a par with what we had before. There is no way anyone could say in all seriousness that people in the UK are getting the same service as they were with the old channel especially in relation to the content. Despite what some members think i do understand the financial difficulties the BBC is in but it feels very much as if the focus is going on appealing the American market. Whenever I turn on it now seems to be a talking head of sort giving opinion. 

I know some have said that there are still the network bulletins but there is not the time in these to have MPs questioned at depth, or look in details at stories. These single item opt out streams idten feel like they padding time where other stories could be covered.

I don't think anybody is trying to claim that the new channel is the same service - at best some will say it is a different service of a similar quality, but I think, from the perspective of UK news, few would say anything but it being weaker (though, of course, as things stand, that is the most rational course for the BBC). Arguably, it would have made more sense for the BBC to stress it being a new, different service than trying to highlight the continuities, but we are where we are.

But I do also think that some of the commentary here compares the current channel to a News channel that didn't really exist or at least hadn't for several years. E.g., I, like many, do not care for endless pundit discussions, but the use of talking heads was already pretty prevalent and seemingly growing in the last few years of the News channel. And I'm not particularly sure that the channel's standard hours were ever the place I'd seek out in-depth analysis and interviews, certainly not in an appointment-to-view manner.

Plus, while I would agree that the Breaking opts could do with being tightened up a bit, including covering some other stories in brief, I can see why they do it like that - most viewers of the channel do not watch for an extended period of time and so they want to ensure that anybody who  is tuning in for fifteen minutes gets the details.