The Newsroom

BBC hourly daytime updates in 80’s/90’s

(July 2019)

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TI
timbouk
Just wondered when the BBC1 morning and BBC2 hourly news updates started during daytimes started? Also why was the last BBC2 update at 3:50pm rather than 4pm?

As a child I remember them interrupting cricket and tennis during summer afternoons!
JK
JKDerry
Just wondered when the BBC1 morning and BBC2 hourly news updates started during daytimes started? Also why was the last BBC2 update at 3:50pm rather than 4pm?

As a child I remember them interrupting cricket and tennis during summer afternoons!

The hourly news summaries started in the autumn of 1986 when BBC One launched a proper, codified daytime television schedule.

Until 1986, their daytime output was on/off, Breakfast Time, Pebble Mill at One, Playschool mixed with endless Pages from Ceefax.

No real codified schedule unlike ITV, who launched a proper schedule of daytime shows in October 1972 when broadcasting hours restrictions were lifted by the Heath government.

Monday 27th October 1986 was the start of the proper daytime schedule on BBC One, the hourly news summaries followed on Monday 8th December 1986.
JK
JKDerry
With regards to the 3.50pm news, yes that always surprised me. I think BBC Two wanted to start a set of programming at 4.00pm every day, and so 3.50pm was the closest they could get for news and regional news.

The hourly summaries on BBC Two were a bit weak, not really needed since they were only three bulletins. I would have just had one afternoon update with regional news at 3.00pm and that would have sufficed, but the BBC in 1986 were determined to show they could provide a lot more news on television.
BR
Brekkie
Were the hourly updates a condition of being allowed to broadcast during the day.
JK
JKDerry
Were the hourly updates a condition of being allowed to broadcast during the day.

Not a condition, more of an attitude at the BBC under Michael Grade to expand their news output. This was the reason why they reformatted Breakfast Time in November 1986 to a more news driven format, moving away from the sofa, pullovers, soft news programme which was its format since it launched in January 1983.


The 1986 revamp also saw the One O'Clock News launched. Replacing the old News Afternoon which always floated around the schedule since 1981, either at 12.30pm before Pebble Mill, or at 1.00pm when Pebble Mill was off, or at 1.15pm when they aired cricket etc, etc. The One O'Clock News, on every lunchtime at 1.00pm no matter what, was to show the BBC cared about news.
JK
JKDerry
The 1986 relaunch of BBC One was really needed. As ITV had cornered the daytime schedules since 1972, and BBC One never really ventured into that area in any grand style.

The 1972 lifting of the broadcasting hours limits saw a reinvigorated ITV really go hell for leather with a proper daytime schedule from Monday 16th October 1972. From that day onward, ITV was on the air every day with a proper daytime schedule line up, with no stop/starts. Even when schools were off on holidays, the daytime schedules were there with family entertainment and the odd adult education programme thrown in, meaning there was something on television from at least 9.30am each day.

BBC One - well, it was a haphazard approach to daytime schedules, with 1973/1974 being the high point before massive budget cuts saw their daytime schedules really scaled back to just schools programmes, adult education, Pebble Mill at One and the odd sporting event, and that was your lot until around 4.00pm from January 1975.

So, 1986 was a way for Michael Grade to say, BBC One is here properly, every weekday from 6.00am with a proper schedule. And try to hit ITV in the daytime ratings, which in fact they did, as ITV overhauled their schedules in 1987.
WM
WMD
As to why the final daytime BBC2 bulletin was at the peculiar time of 3:50pm, I wonder if this was a legacy of the previous even-more-oddly timed 3:53 regional bulletin on BBC1 in most of England (except London/SE) in the 70s and early 80s. That was properly strange, as it was often the first programme back after an afternoon closedown and often preceded by regional clock and a ‘follows shortly’ slide with inappropriately jaunty muzak. And then followed by a regional globe into (usually) Play School.
AR
Argybargy
Of course, the hourly BBC One news bulletins ended some years ago, presumably as they felt there was no longer a need for them after the launch of the news channel.
Last edited by Argybargy on 9 July 2019 4:30pm
DE
deejay
The last one left standing was the afternoon news summary at 3pm, which was for many years on BBC Two at 3.25pm. (It was the last remaining routine BBC Two Regional opt). For a long time, most daytime summaries had regional opts following them. In the 90s there were therefore regional opts at 0626, 0656, 0726, 0756, 0826, 0855, 1002, 1102, 1215 (?), the lunchtime opt after The One, the 1525 on BBC Two, then the main regional magazine, then the late bulletin after the Nine. Many of these were fairly simple, short bulletins, a lot presented from the infamous pres desks which were self operated by the presenter, a single camera and almost nothing more than a slide scanner to illustrate stories (if that).
RN
Rolling News
The hourly summaries stopped around 2002/2003 i think. Then it was just the 11am, 12:15pm and 3pm summaries on BBC One until 2012.
JK
JKDerry
Of course, the hourly BBC One news bulletins ended some years ago, presumably as they felt there was no longer a need for them with the advent of the news channel.

That is right, they became a relic of the past. ITV axed their mid morning news summary too. The world has moved on.


The hourly news summaries were our first glimpse of the BBC newsroom since the Nine O'Clock News of the early 1970s who used a CSO backdrop of the newsroom, the hourly summaries actually came from the newsroom I think.

"Good morning, and from the newsroom the main stories at ..." and then the time would be stated by the newsreader, that is how usually the hourly news summaries on BBC One were introduced back then.
JK
JKDerry
Here is an example of the daytime news summary presentation, this clip is from February 1988:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgaWE7Fkmsk

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