[DTV]

Having never watched world pre-merger I can’t comment on the balance of stories, but looking at it through my “BBC News channel (old) and BBC world are no more, it’s BBC News channel (v2)” glasses it feels from the times I’m dropping in very much to be swings and roundabouts. I put it one day and it did feel very much of UK focus that day, but then a few days later in inadvertently put the context on and it was so overly USA focused that I did wonder if it had been similar stories based in the UK that there would have been people on here commenting about the amount of time a run of UK focus story got.

There is certainly a bit of inconsistency in editorial balance and I'm not sure how much is down to differing people in the editor's chair or whether there are just no rules for anybody to follow. But taking everything together, I think it's hard to come to any conclusion other than things happened too soon. Pretty much every fault in the merged channel - whether it's the lack of clear rules on editorial balance, questions of format, the recruitment process being incomplete, staggered and half-arsed graphics changes - would all have been avoidable with a longer period of preparation and/or phasing in. Now, obviously there were financial considerations in play, but it's clear a lot of crucial decisions were either rushed or just not really taken.

[Brekkie]

I still don't understand how anyone involved in the visual / graphical look of the BBC News (merged) channel thinks that that bright, bright red lower third news strap is a good "look". I'm not an expert or an industry professional - I'm just a humble viewer - but it's so blindingly bright that I often wonder if it's an issue with my contrast controls on my television set. Maybe I'm missing the point - i.e. it's meant to stand out visually - but when you get it displayed for non-breaking news, it makes any genuine breaking news come across as redundant.

Just watching the athletics now and seeing how they can have 3-4 lines of text including a dynamic bug yet it doesn't feel like a third of the picture is taken up.   BBC News is far from the only news channel guilty of this but they're now taking up more of the picture with less info, and a solid rather than transparent strap makes it even worse.

[IanJRedman]

Yes, I can't believe the solid strap ever made it to air. I don't even have so much of an issue with the red, per se - it's the lack of transparency which makes it feel so much more intrusive. I also wonder if it's riskier for OLED users (image retention).

[KatsKaravan]

Yes, I can't believe the solid strap ever made it to air. I don't even have so much of an issue with the red, per se - it's the lack of transparency which makes it feel so much more intrusive. I also wonder if it's riskier for OLED users (image retention).

I'm not sure even the opacity is the issue. It's just so big! Sky's graphics are opaque and no one bats an eyelid, probably because they are half the size of the BBC strap.

[harryb]

I'm not sure even the opacity is the issue. It's just so big! Sky's graphics are opaque and no one bats an eyelid, probably because they are half the size of the BBC strap.

And I would say the Sky straps being half the size also has more information on it then 3 words like the BBC one.

[ViridianFan]

There is certainly a bit of inconsistency in editorial balance and I'm not sure how much is down to differing people in the editor's chair or whether there are just no rules for anybody to follow. But taking everything together, I think it's hard to come to any conclusion other than things happened too soon. Pretty much every fault in the merged channel - whether it's the lack of clear rules on editorial balance, questions of format, the recruitment process being incomplete, staggered and half-arsed graphics changes - would all have been avoidable with a longer period of preparation and/or phasing in. Now, obviously there were financial considerations in play, but it's clear a lot of crucial decisions were either rushed or just not really taken.

 Very true. It feels very much like it’s dependent who’s sat in the editors chair on the day. We could probably come to the conclusion that there are no rules been designed on balance as most other things seem to have been a wing it. 

You’re right it’s too soon to come to a conclusion. If it had launched day one as it meant to go on then I don’t think it would feel as half as bad as it does at the moment. It’s that feeling of it almost being at the design stage and people are still fiddling with bits, just this time item on screen.

There was the financial decision at play meaning it had to start with the new financial year but I do think they had plenty of time to have gotten this to launch as a polished final product. They can manage it, look at when the restrictions kicked in, practically over night they effectively merged the channels. One could argue they’ve had more time and actually just made a mess. I’m really not trying to be cynical or fall into the world of conspiracy theories but when you stand back and look at what’s going out from a managerial view point i can’t help but wonder is this being done on purpose. If I, a viewer with no experience in the business can see all this r n surely they can.

[TVenthusiasm]

And I would say the Sky straps being half the size also has more information on it then 3 words like the BBC one.

Yeah the straps Sky use are better than the BBC's efforts. I've put two images from BBC/Sky News together and put a line on top of the red BBC strap to show how much smaller Sky's is. Sky clearly has more info on their strap - this example being a breaking news strap and the strap is not as high as the BBC. Though the ticker on both images are the same size basically.

[harshy]

There’s definitely been a decision made down the line that the news channel had to have these dreadful red graphics 24/7, maybe someone should ask Chris Cook as to why as it hasn’t affected the rest of bbc news.

[oscillon]

For some reason, the UK feed carried the 6am BBC News bulletin in full and crashed into Breakfast only after it concluded, at 06:26 UKT.

[Reith85]

There’s definitely been a decision made down the line that the news channel had to have these dreadful red graphics 24/7, maybe someone should ask Chris Cook as to why as it hasn’t affected the rest of bbc news.

Given Chris Cook Tweeted about the new strap colour on "Super Monday", 25th June, boasting about it as if it was a bold new innovation, I doubt he'll respond about it in any way other than positively.