[AaronTV]

I haven’t really commented on the merged channel here as of yet as I feel that whilst there is understandably a good deal of frustration at the situation, much of the criticism of the combined channel has strayed into hyperbole in my opinion. From what I’ve seen, it looks absolutely fine. It’s rolling news, as it always has been.

In numbers terms, it remains the case that well over 90% of the people who consume news from the BBC regularly will not have noticed these changes. The 100,000 people or so who tended to watch the previous incarnation of the news channel are absolutely dwarfed by the 5-6 million people collectively who watch the main network bulletins each day, alongside the many more who access BBC News content but never switch a TV on.

At times when there has been breaking domestic news, people will have switched to BBC News to find the story being covered, as has always been the case.

The biggest sign that it’s actually been handled rather well is that nobody outside of circles like this forum has actually noticed the merger - there’s been no media criticism, no commentary, nothing.

Many other organisations have to make the best of the resources available to them in the name of efficiency - ITN have always done an excellent job of this, with far less space and far fewer resources than the BBC.

What we are seeing now is the BBC having to make difficult decisions that its commercial counterparts have faced for decades. Clearly there has been an impact on the merged channel presentation, and it does look a little rough round the edges at times, but it’s absolutely fine overall.

Interestingly my only real criticism is that I honestly don’t believe the BBC needs to necessarily hide that it’s a merged channel - why not make the most of the BBC’s global assets more? People are not completely insular and would probably be pretty interested in global news (outside of breaking news) and with regular UK updates.

Mornings, for example, could consist of some generic BBC News output and regular headlines and weather, but with dedicated blocks that go out on both feeds ie. UK focused, then US, then a global show (Around the UK, America Today, The World Today, etc).

Where else would you get such a range of output and talent with bases all over the world? Only with the BBC.

Rather than the BBC being embarrassed about running a merged service, it seems to me that the trick to making it a success would actually be to shout about it and make the global focus with a UK angle it’s USP!