[interestednovice]

I’m in two minds about the new filler.

My initial reaction was that it looked nice but didn’t make any sense and really made it seem like BBC News as a channel was clearly “commercial” with the adverts covered up. However, it looked visually good and was less repetitive and irritating than the “Across the UK” filler they had been doing previously.

This would work very well in areas where the channel is on a public TV all day, with low or potentially no sound. I don’t think countdown-style music fits, I have to agree, so the V2 music is better. For this scenario, it is great.

However, for the at-home viewer, it is very obviously “filler” and will probably lead them to turn off. Once again, why are the BBC reinventing the wheel? Back in the old World News days, they always had “in brief” sections which covered a few stories (read by the presenter, with pictures and proper lower thirds). During Newsday, the London presenter would always cover UK news in-brief. That even required rapidly changing camera angles and it was in the middle of the night when hardly anyone was watching, but they still went to the effort!

So why not do a news in brief section, using the presenter already there, and then it’s less obvious that it’s filler? Obviously, it has to be timed right so that feeds with ads can join and leave correctly but a short sting should sort that out. As a bonus, if ads or opts fail to play out, a UK in brief section would not seem too out of place even for international viewers on a channel from the BBC.

Is it just that resources are so thin on the ground that they don’t even have producers spare to put together pictures, lower thirds and the small extra amount of script needed to do it? I don’t know.

Also, I agree with others that the way they “crash” in and out of opts these days, unacknowledged and without stings, etc, is so odd and really needs looking at. Viewers don’t know what is going on when a presenter goes: “Around the world, and across the UK, this is BBC News” and then stares at them blankly. Even weirder when they then return, stare again for a short time, and then go “Live from London, this is BBC News”.