BBC News Channel General Discussion

Oh yes, the program credits were UK Reporters, the show began with Reporters titles. Seems like an editing error.

Bizarre occurance just now on the News channel. Simon McCoy started the 10:05 headlines, sequence ran and then went in to the main story. We were then greeted with the filler sequence midway through the first VT report and then the headline and TOTH sequence was broadcast again. Did network miscue/time the NC gallery resulting in the restart?

I thought I was imagining things. I was watching on the NC and turned over to BBC One when the news started, to see that Mrs Brown's Boys was still going. I though they might be delaying the News on BBC1 by a few minutes (rather than having a complete simulcast) and when the news started on BBC1 I presumed that exactly what they were doing.

Not sure what delayed things (the news was supposed to start at 10:05, which is when the first attempt at the Simon McCoy news started) - maybe the live part of the national lottery.

I saw the same, switched on the NC at 22:00 to watch the news, it was all a total shambles ( for those watching the NC, which must be fewer and fewer people given the way it's being emasculated )

It's also strange that when the BBC One news starts at 10:05, they do a full opening titles on the News Channel, then full opening titles again 5 minutes later. Can't they persuade BBC One schedulers to keep the news to the hour/half hour (or at the very least to keep it away from 5 past/10 past the hour)?

The whole idea of integrating the weekend and Bank Holiday BBC 1 bulletins into the NC's normal flow,
is highly flawed, it's a mess, unless (like the 1, 6 and 10) the bulletins start bang on the hour or half hour.

It's an economy step too far, simple as that.

It really does ruin the flow of the channel - it surely wouldn't be that hard to schedule the bulletins on the hour, half hour or during the back half hour when the channel is showing taped programming (I'm not sure if that's technically possible though).

The weekend schedules aren't set in stone anyway - Casualty, for example, hasn't got anything that even resembles a fixed time slot. So scheduling around the news would perhaps even make the schedules a bit more stable.

The Saturday schedule, for much of the year, is back timed to ensure Match of the Day starts at 2230. Assuming BBC One don't want a 30 minute Saturday news bulletin then MOTD would need to permanently start about ten minutes earlier. The early evening bulletin would be even harder to schedule - though I wonder if it would be possible to do one of the following:
a) Play out a recorded back half hour programme to BBC News Channel with BBC One in studio E (different output from same studio to different channels)
b) Move BBC News to studio D for the early evening bulletin with London straight after - (London presenter would stand and would require very tight shots - same director etc. for network and London).
c) Move BBC News channel to studio D for the early evening bulletin and network bulletin and London both come from studio E - again London presenter standing with shared director etc. (I believe London has incredibly minimal staffing at weekends already).

MOTD isn't fixed to 2230 exactly. Last Saturday it was 2225 for example. I don't see that MOTD would stop the late Saturday bulletin being 'fixed' to 2200 (special events excepted), with MOTD at 2220. It's probably BBC1 wanting the flexibility with the rest of its schedule that causes the current situation

I think there's a stipulation that MOTD must start by 10:30 at the latest (I might have made that up though), but nothing stopping it showing earlier. It could easily be broadcast at 10:20.

Plus, I just don't see how the early evening bulletin can't be scheduled for a TOTH or BOTH. There are few shows in the Saturday schedules which couldn't be padded out or shortened by 5 minutes (many are live/talent formats/quiz formats/the lottery). While you know during the week when you'll find the news - and, to be fair, with the late bulletin which is always at around 10 - the early evening bulletin is often very short and hidden in a random slot between whatever program the schedulers feel like. It's worth remembering that this is the only regional news content on the BBC at a weekend - once you've missed it, you've missed it - and ITV are equally guilty.

Dont weekend news programmes get fairly high ratings though? And I can't see any scheduler scheduling BBC One programmes so that a (in comparison) little watched news channel can hit the TOTH.

A look at the BARB top 10 for the News Channel shows none of the simulcast weekend bulletins are in the top 10. The most viewed programme for w/e 23 Aug was the 0800 hour of Breakfast on Sunday, followed by the 0900 edition of BBC News on the same day.