The BBC World News Thread

(Besides i don´t think that a largely empty newsroom intro would make a lot of sense).

If anything, the last few weeks have shown that BBC News are simulcasting the wrong bits of World News. The decision to take BBC World News over the late national news has, IMO, been smart. There is no actual reason to simulcast the national bulletins on the news channel (other than the News at One which is signed) - these could easily be replaced by World programmes with no additional cost and would offer a choice between the typically UK dominated BBC One bulletins and an international bulletin. The News Channel could even forsake Breakfast and carry on the simulcast until 0900.

Simon McCoy on NC and World = best way to end 2020.

Unfortunately doesn’t look like we’re going to have him counting us down to midnight

Well it appears 2020 had one last little surprise for us and we did have Simon taking us into 2021.
Happy new year to you all🎉

There's one thing that I have found as a positive of the simplified output (ie the simulcasting): a lot of the original presenters from the BBC News Channel who moved over to World News and subsequently vanished from the eyes of domestic viewers, are now featuring more prominently on our screens (such as Tim Wilcox, Matthew Amroliwala and a number of others whose names evade me right now).

It provides a bit of "difference" from the usual daily consistency of schedules. I think that the News Channel can benefit from the increase in simulcasting: all they need to do is ensure that both sides are kept happy (and the intro where they say "for viewers in the UK and around the world" is a pretty good starting point). Of course, some will say that it means the "domestic only" presenters are getting less air time, but I'm sure that most of those presenters can easily present their bulletins in a simulcasted environment with no impact at all (such as when large breaking news occurs, a la Martine Croxall).

For branded programmes, things like Newsroom Live and Live with Lucy Hockings, even Impact, would work well in the simulcasted environment, with a mixture of stories that cover both the domestic audience and the international audience: if there are concerns about domestic stories being useless to the international audience, they just need to ensure that viewers are clear on the purpose of the story being only relevant to one party, or bring in the angle of the impact of that story to the international viewing audience.

Thats not to say "everything" should be a simulcast, but this pandemic has proven the two channels can simulcast easily wherever needed.

Is the demand there though for World News at the time - if the BBC thought there was an audience they'd do it. If there isn't viewers will either go to BBC1 or move along to Sky News if just hopping around the EPG.

It's being smart with the simulcasts and ensuring anything that is simulcast is designed to be simulcast, so sympathetic to the needs of both services. It's where they simulcast out of necessity that it becomes a problem.

Arguably the best times to simulcast are the hour before the main bulletins - means vacating Studio E without needing to provide an hour from elsewhere, and if the bulletin ends up being heavy on the World News front then at least a UK based bulletin is due to air at the end of the hour.