[Newsroom]

I hope Newsroom doesn't mind me answering on his behalf, but I would think he means that the BBC is so poor they now can't afford to power up the studio 

Exactly, and thanks Rob! 

*Still with shackles, hoping it won't last that long.

[Juicy Joe]

Good to see BBC News broadcasting the Manchester City parade in glorious 144p quality tonight.

[aaron_scotland]

Good to see BBC News broadcasting the Manchester City parade in glorious 144p quality tonight.

And now just showing Man City TV footage on mute whilst they talk over it, very strange, not sure the point as we can't hear whatever the man city people are saying.

[Andrew]

It also says “Pictures courtesy of Man City” which presumably means the BBC haven’t got any of their cameras there and they are just reshowing a live stream

ITV had cameras and presenters there for the ITV Evening News

[DTV]

BARB monthly figures for May out today. BBC News' monthly reach increased from 9.7m to 10.7m, which is actually the channel's second best figure this year. However, no real change in monthly audience share (1.1% to 1.1%) or average daily minutes (01:39 to 01:38) which remain at April's below average level.

Sky News' reach also increased (from 7.7m to 8.7m, also its second-highest this year), but unlike the BBC did increase its share (0.75% to 0.87%) and average minutes (01:08 to 01:17) - though neither of these levels are exceptional for the channel and again point to the fact that April was a poor month for both of the UK's news channels.

Still too early to be drawing any firm conclusions, but ultimately the current figures, though below average, are not catastrophic and the fluctuation seems to be more down to the vagaries of the news agenda than any viewer revolt.

[Juicy Joe]

I see the BBC News UK opt-out have once again, opted out of their own UK opt-out, to bring us live breaking news coverage from Nottingham and sent Nicky Campbell home early.

[Alf Stewart]

I see the BBC News UK opt-out have once again, opted out of their own UK opt-out, to bring us live breaking news coverage from Nottingham and sent Nicky Campbell home early.

Lots of dead air on 5Live then!

[LDN]

Instead of reinstating the two-line lower-thirds for breaking news, it seems BBC News has chosen to leave the large red BREAKING/Headline permanently on screen, and instead use the ticker/flipper to provide details about the story, replacing the function previously provided by the second line of text on the main red super.

ibb.co 

bbc-news-notts-breaking-lower-thirds hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB
Image bbc-news-notts-breaking-lower-thirds hosted in ImgBB
  Source: ibb.co

While it's nice to finally see textual story information return to the screen -- especially for those places and occasions when you can only watch a news channel with the volume down! -- it seems questionable for the ticker to be used in this way. 

As we've seen each time the UK channel has opted out to cover a story, there appears to be a policy in place to never refer to any other story during a UK opt. We don't get round-ups of other stories or headlines, and the ticker -- if it's working at all - rarely shows other headlines either. The policy seems to be that if an opt out is needed to cover a UK story, they'll exclusively cover that story and pretend that nothing else is happening anywhere else. 

As a result of this, during UK opts, BBC News viewers in the UK might well be getting comprehensive coverage of an important UK story, but they might well be waiting for hours, as today, before they even see or hear another UK or international headline being mentioned on screen. 

So why is the ticker being used to show information about that one UK story -- albeit with a single additional reference to online coverage of the Covid Inquiry -- instead of providing a more useful full rundown of other important headlines around the world? 

And if the ticker was supposedly being phased out because it's too small to see on mobile screens, why on earth is it being used at all, let alone to show essential details about a story that was considered important enough to opt out for?

[justinh]

As we've seen each time the UK channel has opted out to cover a story, there appears to be a policy in place to never refer to any other story during a UK opt. We don't get round-ups of other stories or headlines, and the ticker -- if it's working at all - rarely shows other headlines either. The policy seems to be that if an opt out is needed to cover a UK story, they'll exclusively cover that story and pretend that nothing else is happening anywhere else. 

As a result of this, during UK opts, BBC News viewers in the UK might well be getting comprehensive coverage of an important UK story, but they might well be waiting for hours, as today, before they even see or hear another UK or international headline being mentioned on screen. 

So why is the ticker being used to show information about that one UK story -- albeit with a single additional reference to online coverage of the Covid Inquiry -- instead of providing a more useful full rundown of other important headlines around the world? 

Lots of hand-wringing on here over the months about how the UK opts don't provide the headlines in the same way that news channels traditionally do, but that's completely rational when you think about the fact that the bulk of the audience is watching online now.

More than ever, live news is only being consumed when something big happens - rather than as something you leave on, dip into briefly, or (even more rare) as appointment viewing. Most people watching the UK opt are doing so in a web browser or on an app. And they're doing so because they want to know about updates about Nottingham specifically. Far fewer are watching the output as a news *channel* so to speak.

It's a trade-off, but I think it's a rational one if the BBC no longer values the tiny audience that a free-to-air news channel brings in.

[Keith]

Lots of hand-wringing on here over the months about how the UK opts don't provide the headlines in the same way that news channels traditionally do, but that's completely rational when you think about the fact that the bulk of the audience is watching online now.

More than ever, live news is only being consumed when something big happens - rather than as something you leave on, dip into briefly, or (even more rare) as appointment viewing. Most people watching the UK opt are doing so in a web browser or on an app. And they're doing so because they want to know about updates about Nottingham specifically. Far fewer are watching the output as a news *channel* so to speak.

It's a trade-off, but I think it's a rational one if the BBC no longer values the tiny audience that a free-to-air news channel brings in.

I wonder if during UK opts the News Channel could use a pushout(?) every 15 mins or so to show the headlines in text form on the right-hand side, with maybe an accompanying photos/graphic. At the very least having the ticker display additional news headlines (preferably more than just 3 items) might help. That way they could focuses on the one UK news story, whilst still providing some information about what else is happening in the UK and globally.