BBC National News: Presentation

That's not the point at all... the tennis should go on the channel it was scheduled and the regional programmes should go on the channel that they are scheduled to be on. That way everyone gets what they're expecting

So are you saying that breaking news should stay on the BBC News channel, even if it's important stuff, therefore everyone gets what they're expecting? Some people DO hold sport up with news as important events - even if some of us don't... in a way, this was breaking news to a sports fan.

Well if they were taking it off-air on digital it would have been useless anyway... (An annoying side-effect of analogue switch-off)

They could have provided the the regional news to everybody.

Are you one of these 'New Media' types ? Saying a programme (and that's the correct spelling BTW) can be obtained on the web is sheer arrogance. There are millions of viewers who do not/cannot/will not use their PCs to watch TV, and why the hell should they have too, when we're talking about two major universally available national TV networks .

The madness of yesterday evening is being discussed in many forums, it's only in here where I see people actually defending it !

Losing the regional slot for the Channel Islands was more of pain than usual because the Island Games were going on this week. The viewership would have been increased, so losing this slot was more unfortunate. Plus with reporters being in Aland especially for the games, it was a bit of a waste of money and effort too losing that day.

Newsflashes aren't scheduled and they can go on any channel. If it's an important newsflash (i.e. a matter of great importance) then of course it should interupt normal schedules.

But the simple fact that you're missing is that Regional News is incapable of transferring to BBC2 . It's not the case of it being news versus sport and which gets priority, it's a case of depriving large areas of the country with their news as well as wasting many thousands of pounds worth of production budget in those areas that ripped up their running orders and went home early

There's no practical reason why the tennis can't go on BBC2, but there is a very good reason why the regional news cannot go on BBC1. Next year this distinction will be even more important... if it happens next year North West Tonight will be axed and what does that say about the BBCs committment to Manchester?

Also I'm sure the avid 'sports fan' who set the video/PVR to record the Murray match was a bit upset to get the 6 o clock news and BBC London instead of the climax of the match!

Also the opt out that didn't happen won't appear on the web because they didn't happen! They didn't hang around to record a special bulletin just for the net... they went home early!

Years ago some of the web versions of the regional news were done as auto-records off air. So if they didn't change the reciever over to BBC2, then the 'watch last bulletin' was the wrong thing! I wonder if that happened anywhere last night?

It doesn't look like it has - I've had a look on the English regions websites and these are the editions available as of 11:30 this morning (for anyone who wants to know):



EDIT: Of all the regions which *has* taped Andy Murray instead - it's Northern Ireland (Real Media), who actually had their bulletin on all platforms anyway.

EDIT 2: ...and so did BBC Scotland (Real Media).

I think you mean that the regional news cannot go on BBC2 - not being a pedant but as this is the point which many people are spectacularly failing to grasp it is worth correcting

That the news wasn't that interesting that day is hardly the point.

Anyways, it been mentioned on here a few times that the BBC are intersted in moving to the ITV system of sending everyting to london and handling the opts centrally. Would this allow for BBC2 regionality again / remove the need for not-stat muxing BBC1?

They are already running DTT in a version of that system - each region's digital transmitters are connected to London, and the BBC1 feed is supplied from the backhaul circuit used for DSat coming back from each region.

Apologies I was ridiculously tired yesterday when I wrote that and due to various events in my life right now my spelling has gone to pot.



My argument is that yes, it should have been put onto BBC 2 not BBC 1 to begin with, but that once it was on BBC 1 it was the right decision to keep it on and not move it over. To many people whether Andy Murray makes it through to the Wimbledon final would be as great as England getting through to the World Cup final, and I can assure you somebody arguing regional news should be put above the world cup really would be in the minority.

Also I can assure you that 6-odd million people would not have been watching BBC Regional news programming yesterday considering the main BBC News bulletins fail to reach that figure, and in an event like this the majority should have their way - regional programming goes out, undisturbed for an awful lot of the year and Wimbledon has been around, and to the best of my knowledge broadcast in some form or shape, for much longer than regional news programming which is often made up of utter crap that barely constitutes news.