BBC News 24 Relaunch

They haven't been on the ball at all with this Tel Aviv bombing at all - Sky broke it 3 minutes earlier, News 24 only had it as breaking news on screen for a very short time - why did they continue with the ticker about Soham..?

Isn't counting minutes between who breaks news incredibly pedantic? Heaven forbid I should have been in the loo and not known about a bomb thousands of miles away for, oh 5 minutes.

It's not pedantic, no, not on channels dedicated to breaking news.

Forgive me, but thats not true. You can't even boil and egg in the time difference. Now 20 minutes to an hour might be significant. 3 minutes matters not.

Sorry - but in an environment where "First with the News" promotions are common you have to be able to demonstrate that a channel is breaking news first. Whether it is 30" or 30 minutes is immaterial - though whoever is first normally lets the other channels know (everyone is watching everyone else these days)

It is also quite important for the BBC to demonstrate that they are leading the field in both the speed and accuracy of news reporting. As long as they are clear about attributing the source of the news - and selective editorially with less trustworthy sources then they should still aim to be first. (Sky, CNN, ITN will all be trying to be first as well)

Indeed the phrase everyone is watching everyone gives it away. The only people it matters to are the channels themselves. Who else watches both channels at once. The viewer at home has no clue if Sky breaks a piece of news 20 seconds after News24, or vice versa.

Cosmo Girl! editor Celia Duncan must have delighted National Magazine Company bosses on Monday night when she appeared on the new-look BBC News 24. During a four-minute interview about a British Medical Association report into the teenage “health time bomb”, Duncan mentioned Cosmo Girl! no fewer than five times.

Beginning many of her answers with “Well, at Cosmo Girl!…” Duncan appeared to irritate News 24 presenter Louise Minchin, who at one point gently admonished her with the words, “Well, you’ve had a lot of plugs for your magazine but what about…” Full marks for effort, but how many potential Cosmo Girl! readers does Duncan imagine watch BBC News 24 at 9.30pm on a school night (or any night)? Having shown herself to be a shameless product plugger, will the Beeb ever risk putting her on live television again?