[Brekkie]

But it’s usually not is it?

And surely you only needed to *hear* the speakers?

Most of what people say is delivered in how they say it. At something like the Nottingham Vigil it was about connecting with the emotion in their face as much as the words that they said, and on a more day to day basis with politicians speaking for example how they say things is often as important as what they say. I thought news nowadays wanted to connect to viewers on a more human level, and seeing how people express themselves is a huge part of that.

That argument is somewhat undermined by some of the changes that BBC News has made:

[*]Removing the second, descriptive line of text from the lower-thirds. 
[*]Reduction of most stories to a single four- or five-word headline, which is often left on screen for several minutes at a time. 
[*]The frequent deactivation of the ticker/flipper, replacing it with nothing but a URL. 
[*]Displaying nothing but the same three or four headlines on a loop on the ticker, on the rare occasions when it functions (rather than 6 or 7 major headlines, along with sport, business etc); or using it to endless cycle contact information that is already shown on screen in pushback. 


You're right -- news is about information, but the BBC's actions have shown that text -- at least on the lower thirds -- is no longer considered an essential part of how they share that information with the audience. 

BBC News has greatly reduced the functionality, usefulness, and the value, of the lower-thirds in recent months. Just how useful is it to audiences to introduce a story, play out the package, return to the studio, and chat with a guest -- several minutes of on-air time -- showing absolutely nothing on screen but the same four-word story title? And while showing them no world headlines or anything else on the ticker except the URL? 

As a result of the BBC's changes, the lower thirds are now, quite literally, a waste of space.

You've summed up what I wanted to say perfectly - the strap especially is just there for the sake of being there rather than to provide useful information, and the same with the empty flipper and empty logo bar too. They're not enhancing the information the viewer gets in any way at all. The push backs can be useful for summarising info in a press conference or parliamentrary announcement for example, but increasingly just being used for the sake of being used too.

Considering the decision has been made to basically just have one line of info on screen most of the time with no additional text offering further clarification and no flipper with any meaningful information they probably should have took the opportunity today to tweak the lay out to reflect that. The straps on This Morning and Packed Lunch for example are largely completely pointless and unnecessary, but they're of a size where they're easily legible and not obstructing the picture.