[ViridianFan]

The network bulletins are designed to offer that analysis and reporting, and do so successfully to many millions of people. 

There are certainly broader arguments to be made about how BBC News as a whole seems to be struggling to get real scoops and lead the news agenda, but that was the case long before the channel’s merged. 

BBC News as a whole has a vast budget overall - if anything, not having a domestic channel to stretch services should be strengthening the quality of reporting on the network bulletins and online. 

Comparing networks and the old news channel is like comparing apples and oranges, they had different purposes. 

How I’ve always seen it is network bulletins are there to provide you with an overview of the tops stories with some analysis. However they can never go too deep into each story as theres not the time. When you think average bulletin can’t be more that 25mins once you’ve taken out the opening headlines, titles, mid-recap, weather, final recap and hand to regions. I’ve always seen them as taking stock of what’s happened by that point in the day. 

The news channel on the other hand was far more about watching stories develop, analysing  them on the go. I think it was also good for those life political interviews with mps. I think they were often more informative than the very brief sound bites as they could (when done properly) hold MPs to account. I also think sections such as your questions answered were very good for allowing the viewer to better understand stories. 

As to the scoops, it depends what you think BBC News’ purpose is. IMO BBC news should be about informing the viewer of important local, national and international stories, cutting through the noise surrounding the stories giving truthful, well informed, verified information free from bias. The scoops should be coming from programs such as Panorama which the BBC News should then be reporting on. 

If budgets allowed there definitely should be a domestic news channel as part of the offering provided. Especially when there is so much misinformation and with the rise a channels which lean in a certain political directions