[Andrew]

And this sort of stuff is what I mean by tabloid style clickbait style articles online

twitter.com 

Keeping the story going with another article, like the tabloids would do

[justinh]

Has always been my impression of the new B. It’s a stunning studio, but the BBC had the best live newsroom background of anyone currently on TV with studio E. I’d take a real newsroom backdrop over lightboxes or the monolith any day.

I've never actually been a fan of the 'live newsroom' background in the first place. It's no more necessary to me than seeing a live image of an abattoir while I eat a steak.

NBH-B doesn't have lightboxes, they are LED screens. Whether or not the images of the newsroom behind the desk are live is largely irrelevant, as there seems to be just about as much 'activity' these days as in the empty fake gallery behind the desk on ITV News. However, I like that on ITV News they have relevant vidoes showing on the 'screens' sometimes, so I guess it must be reactive in some fashion.

One to their own, I think. There was never a storm of activity in E's backdrop on a normal day, but it was clear it was a working environment manned by people. There's a rawness and authenticity to a live newsroom that I miss - especially during breaking news when you were able to see the pace of work increase in the background. 

Reminds me that the news is ultimately still a big human endeavour. And Studio E allowed for an immensely grand view of that endeavour.

www.youtube.com 

www.youtube.com 

[justinh]

I do think it warranted the lead domestically yesterday - easy to pass it off as a showbiz story but really it's a media story and arguably more about the press than TV - not that the reporting on it reflects that. 

An international audience will include those interested in the media internationally too - so some would be aware of the story and those involved in it, but agree it's not really a top story internationally.


If this merged arrangement is going to work I think they need to look at alternating priorities every hour so the UK is the higher priority one hour and world the next.  That could actually keep the channel feeling fresher rather than repeating the same content hour after hour - even if it is the same content in a different order.

I think no amount of rejiggering can really mend the fundamental contradiction/compromise of the two audiences. Though making a clear distinction between "BBC World News" and "BBC News UK" in the EPG would at least make it obvious to the audience what they're watching.

If the BBC wants to compete commercially with a global news player like e.g. Al Jazeera, then a lot of quite important domestic news will need to be drowned on the news agenda to retain their global audience. 

The compromised arrangement will work to a degree, but I'd imagine the audience for a global news channel is larger than the audience for a global news (and also some UK news) channel. CNN can survive chopping limbs off its international product and substituting US content because there's at least a reasonable audience for American politics and US news storylines around the world.

If the BBC believes it can find an substantial commercial audience that's into global news and also a splash of UK domestic issues/politics overseas, then they're on the right path - but I'm doubtful that's their strategy considering their push into the US.

More likely, as evident by how botched so much stuff has been, the merger is just an ill-thought through cost-cutting move that they've politically boxed themselves into with the promise for "premium UK-facing programming" to the regulators.

[Andrew]

If it had been a weekday, I wonder if they would have debated Philip Schofield on “The Context” or actually have dropped the story for two hours

[James2001]

Some people will get incredibly angry at you for suggesting that

It's true through isn't it? The Merger has NOT worked and no amount of branding programming (including the new ones from Monday) will change that fact until both channels are demerged.

There's some people who think the merged channel is the best thing since sliced bread and how dare we be anal and pathetic and complain about it...

[Stuart]

Especially on a Saturday, there were opportunities for the channel to discuss a UK-only topic during the back-half-hour when the international feed is showing a pre-recorded programme after the BOTH headlines. There was already a studio presenter who could do it.

It just didn't make any sense to me for the BBC to bore an international audience with 'news' about a bloke leaving a TV programme in the UK.

I switched to Al Jazeera again yesterday. They manage to operate an international service, operating from 3 different locations around the world which move depending on the time of day: Doha, then London, then Washington and back to Doha for the start of their next broadcasting day.  I never get news about a 'cracked pavement crisis' in Doha!

It seems like quite a successful model to replicate by simply using London-Washington-Singapore-London and sticking to international news.
(/rant)    

[News76]

It's true through isn't it? The Merger has NOT worked and no amount of branding programming (including the new ones from Monday) will change that fact until both channels are demerged.

There's some people who think the merged channel is the best thing since sliced bread and how dare we be anal and pathetic and complain about it...

Well one thing's for sure this Merged Channel surely cannot (and will not) last the year (and i'm talking about 2023, not the financial year)-if they want output from Singapore and the US, put that on a separate stream and leave those of us who want UK News output 24 hours a day in peace

[all new phil]

It's true through isn't it? The Merger has NOT worked and no amount of branding programming (including the new ones from Monday) will change that fact until both channels are demerged.

There's some people who think the merged channel is the best thing since sliced bread and how dare we be anal and pathetic and complain about it...

Are there?

[Blubatt]

And equally, there's those like me who do not really care.

[Steve in Pudsey]

It's true through isn't it? The Merger has NOT worked and no amount of branding programming (including the new ones from Monday) will change that fact until both channels are demerged.

There's some people who think the merged channel is the best thing since sliced bread and how dare we be anal and pathetic and complain about it...

I'm not convinced even the management of BBC News think that - they're making the best of a bad job in the circumstances