[DTV]

Does anyone know how well does BBC News Channel do in the ratings? Is it really needed anymore?

We are not living in 1997, pre millennium world anymore, very few of us watch news channels anymore - maybe BBC World News being the sole news channel and end the BBC News Channel would help.

ITV News closed down their news channel, and it didn't really harm them.

As it happens, there's an easily accessible website where you can find out this info. The BBC News channel is typically between the tenth and twelfth most-watched channel in the UK and is watched by 1 in 6 TV viewers at least once a month, with around 2 million watching each day. If it was wholly redundant, I'm pretty sure that the BBC would ditch it considering their need to make significant cuts.

The comparison to the pre-millennium world is very odd considering both BBC News and BBC World's viewership is significantly higher today than it was back then. They also only have one news channel now, so, unless this comment is on a two-year delay, I'm not really sure of the relevance.

ITV closed the ITV News channel because next to nobody watched it and it made no commercial return meaning that, of course, closing it down didn't do them any harm.