BBC National News: Presentation

Ah, glad I wasn't imagining things. I nearly phoned into work about it, then remembered I'm still on holiday, and didn't want to be That Guy.

Concerns that BBC 1 News bulletins will be squeezed out by Euro and London 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/06/london-olympics-news-bulletins?newsfeed=true

Time people got into the habit of going to the News Channel for news bulletins rather than waiting for Bbc 1!(But how that will resolve the local bulletins, god knows!)

I expect a large chunk of the news bulletins will be devoted to so called 'news' about the games anyway !

And then the regional news, is bound to feature, quote; "how people in the region today have been watching the games in pubs, workplaces, etc ", or "so and so from Dulltown could still get Bronze in whatever, if whoever from foreign place breaks their leg".

Why should people get into that habit? Often I tune into the BBC News Channel to find mundane coverage of a press conference or similar. Whilst I think it is important that the news channel should air such things, at least we all know we will get a comprehensive round up of the news at 1, 6 and 10.

You can still get a comprehensive news roundup at 1, 6 and 10, just by the time the Olympics roll around it won't need to be on BBC 1.

It might serve to 'sharpen up' the news channel, if it was compelled to carry more bulletins, and not drop them for silly mundane events, like spending an hour covering a plane landing at Edinburgh with a panda on board.

Move regional news on to it (making BBC 1 a 100% national service in England) and you'd sharpen up that too.
Sure, breaking news would led to cancellations, and things being bounced along the schedule, but the editors would have to work harder, to ensure they weren't wasting airtime on trivia or a feed of 'nothing happening yet'.

News items still need to be prioritised. If there's a Tsunami in Japan, it's perfectly reasonable for that to displace the allocated time for regional news. I can't think of any 'major' regional event, that wouldn't be national breaking news anyway. Regions with busy news days, could be given the facility to extend their opt outs, over lower priority network news ?

As has been said before, regionalising the BBC News Channel makes no sense seeing as that would mean de-regionalising BBC One. While they may be a rarity nowadays, regional non-news programmes still have the option to fit perfectly well on BBC One when they wouldn't on the BBC News Channel.

Also, in an age of cost-cutting, why would the BBC remove a simulcast which is both popular and necessary under Ofcom terms? As much as many people on this forum would love everyone to sit down watching the BBC News Channel permanently, people like watching regular bulletins on Channel 1/101 and that's not going to change for a long time.

A dip into the archives, with BIG MOIRA and the final edition of News After Noon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2ztDzIYoFQ&feature=related

And Frances Coverdale doing the Nine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF_Sas_cUIE&feature=related

Tyne Tees and UTV regions don't switch until after the Olympics, so it can't be assumed that everyone has access to the News Channel.

I can't see how they will miss their quota

Euro 2012 will just result in bulletins being moved, like what happens every 2 years

The Olympics is only on 2 weeks so that could surely be made up by extending some bulletins by an extra 5 mins for a few weeks.

Couldn't they just move the 1, 6 and 10 over to BBC Two when needed, as does that not count towards their quota?