[News76]

A mix of topics about the merged news channel on Newswatch.

A viewer mentioned about the presenter debacle which BBC News responded by saying they don't comment on HR matters.

The subject of the branded segments (News Now, Verified Live etc) came up. Paul Royall said, I quote 'We've only launched that branding recently, the channel isn't even in its new format, even three months old'. They're still pushing the line that Verified Live has a link with the new 'hub' but there's very little evidence of this on screen?

Nicky Campbell's simulcast came up. Paul Royall said that viewers still get the news at the bottom of the screen - I assume he's referring to the ticker, which doesn't work half the time?

Apparently they've carried out some audience survey (with who?) which shows 60% of UK viewers were happy with the news mix of UK vs Global news.

The overnight Washington/Singapore were raised. Not much was said. Other than the BBC are 'following the Sun'.

Phillip Schofield coverage was mentioned by Samira, but wasn't commented on by Paul directly.

Meanwhile, Newswatch was presented from a clip studio with a badly rendered recording of studio E's newsroom backdrop. I thought they used one of the language service's studios.

To add insult to branding injury, Paul Royall was situated in the business newsroom, with out of date branding on the monitors showing the first iterateration of the Gill Sans 'BBC' and Reith 'NEWS' box.

Not good enough is what i would say to his comment and quite patronizing on some of the points 

1-3 Months out is not recent in my book

2-Someone needs to tell him the difference between a Radio programme and a news Programme.

3-They have surveyed the wrong people

4-It's no longer a HR Matter since Deadline/Jake Kantar commented on the presenter debacle on Tuesday.