Cut down my news intake but when lockdown was first eased in England I though ITV News, and from what I saw BBC News, did a pretty good job of highlighting the different rules and indeed highlighting the differences in the nations in a way they haven't before.
Generally though I've never understood why this argument is usually about the Six - IMO it is the Ten where the nations have a relatively short bulletin afterwards where a merge approach might make sense.
As I said earlier it’s a good idea but there are potential issues but before I go on I have to issue a warning
Fantasy scheduling ahead.
A BBC News Yorkshire for example would have to be an hour long each night to provide a decent service. It would have rely a lot on network reporters.
There wouldn’t be any live reports for national or world stories.
Where would the split be between world/national and local stories? 6.30 is the best bet.
An interesting idea but no chance of it ever happening.
I honestly don't think live reports actually add anything anymore, especially to bulletins like the 6 or the 10. There's an argument for keeping them on the 1, but not sure they really need to exist, other than when there is actual breaking news that requires live reporting.
Really the national news should do a sufficient enough job to cover all the various rules whether it's Wales, England, Scotland or Northern Ireland and to make it clear what rules apply to where.
The running order should really make sure there's sufficient time to cover the different nations and the different rules and we often hear that the presenters write their own scripts so surely they too should be making clear as part as those if different rules apply to different areas.
And part of the role too of a correspondent/editor is to explain the story so if rules do differ the correspondent/editor should be emphasisng that.
I'm in two minds about this. As someone who favours Scottish independence, I can see the merits (particularly in this almost unique circumstance).
That said, I do think this is kind of retrofitting a constitutional (political) problem that is not of the BBC's making. Arguably, we are still one country and, as such, a national news programme is required. I think editorially the fact that there was a focus on England, in one instance, isn't a problem per se.
That said, to avoid the 'poor relation' I do wonder about some of the coverage. Regulations are vastly different in different parts and whilst there is a tendency to report change I do think it's helpful for those in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to also see the continuities in their area.
Really the national news should do a sufficient enough job to cover all the various rules whether it's Wales, England, Scotland or Northern Ireland and to make it clear what rules apply to where.
The running order should really make sure there's sufficient time to cover the different nations and the different rules and we often hear that the presenters write their own scripts so surely they too should be making clear as part as those if different rules apply to different areas.
And part of the role too of a correspondent/editor is to explain the story so if rules do differ the correspondent/editor should be emphasisng that.
When shops reopen in Scotland, all we will get on the national news, will be a quick mention as part of a ‘news in brief’ round up.
We’ve seen this sort of thing a lot where the fact that Scotland was going their own way with certain lockdown policies got a lot of air time at the time, but then a few weeks later when they fall back in line with the UK government policy, it’s a brief mention.
Of course it won’t always be like this when a devolved issue dominates the headlines for weeks, often the top story is not a political story, or is a world story
It must be worse for those in Northern Ireland as all year round the political agenda is dominated by Conservatives and Labour, with the SNP often getting a mention. Irrelevant to NI viewers.
When England & Northern Ireland move to a 1 metre rule for social distancing in a few weeks it really will become a dogs dinner for the broadcasters. Scotland will definitely stick to 2 metres, as may Wales.
That is one of the more compelling arguments I've seen for the Scottish Six idea.
Not just in Scotland. As you can tell from my username, I'm in Wales, and I'm fed up of watching the 'National' news with every Coronavirus related report being relevant only to England, and then Wales Today having to contradict or clarify everything that was just previously reported in the last 30 minutes because everything in Wales is different.
Indeed. I was just referring to the previous calls from Scotland which have never really made a great deal of sense.
In terms of resourcing, BBC Scotland already do a UK/World/Scotland news programme in the Nine, and BBC Wales do the same for S4C (in Welsh). It might not be too big a stretch to do what you are proposing.
When England & Northern Ireland move to a 1 metre rule for social distancing in a few weeks it really will become a dogs dinner for the broadcasters. Scotland will definitely stick to 2 metres, as may Wales.
This 1000 times. It will be really important that it's conveyed what the rules are for each nation. We'll get the usual "The Prime Minister has relaxed the 2 metre social distancing rule across the country.......(which country?)........Scotland and Wales haven't relaxed the rule....." in the Intro, followed by a report entirely about England going out across the entire UK.
Another own goal on the Ten this evening......the Marcus Rashford free school meals voucher story. Again, no mention at all of the fact this is devolved to Scotland and Wales. Welsh politicians pointing out on Twitter free school meals vouchers are continuing over the summer in Wales.....not mentioned in the report on the Ten, or in Fiona's Intro. More reference to "the government", again, which government? Four different government's have responsibility for free school meals/holiday vouchers in the UK.
If the One, Six and Ten are supposed to be UK bulletins, not English bulletins, you'd think the reporters and presenters on each bulletin would be fully aware of what is and is not devolved.
Perhaps for a while they could experiment with an England-only section of the national news and provide an opt-out point to let the nations start their programmes 15 minutes earlier maybe.
That wouldn't work though as generally speaking it's usually one of the top stories (usually a major policy announcement) where the issue is.
Also it is important to remember that issues in England do affect Wales and Scotland too, especially those of us on the border. At the moment I can't go more than five miles in one direction even to see family, but I can drive as far as I like in the other direction to do pretty much what I like it appears.
Huge chunks of BBC network news haven't been relevant in the nations for at least two decades now; particularly Scotland where the "Scottish Six" debate has been going on for years and where powers have been different for centuries. The Scotland situation is particularly glaring when most national papers run some form of bespoke Scottish edition, yet the One, Six and Ten still expect Scottish viewers to sit through items on the English NHS, English council tax, etc. Coronavirus has just made the cracks even more glaring.
The BBC tried to dodge the issue by creating the BBC Scotland channel - but all that's done is shown how things
could
be with The Nine. I suppose that the BBC is politically lucky that there's a government which seems to be no fan of devolution, because another government could well force the BBC's hand in this at charter renewal.
I do wonder what an NI-focused bulletin would look like, though - could be politically interesting.
If you were watching ITV/STV/UTV bulletins instead of the BBC's bulletins in the early evenings; ITV/STV/UTV do have a clear advantage with gaining more viewers off the BBC by giving them information that is relevant to their nations right at the start of the 6pm bulletin. If the viewer wants to know about the rules about the lockdowns in their nations. ITV News is the clear winner here but by how much?
Northern Ireland is probably stuck in an unusual situation at this point in time. If a viewer wants to watch the 6pm TV news bulletin on the lockdown restrictions from that part of the UK; UTV Live is in the unique position of being the 1st port of call in giving the viewer all of the very latest information on what new restrictions are in place from the NI Executive or NI's Dept of Health instantly.
If you want to hear reports on Boris Johnson's daily briefings on the BBC News at 6; you would have to wait another 30 minutes until BBC Newsline comes on at 6:30pm irregardless of what Boris says about the restrictions to anyone living in England. If you are a NI viewer and watch RTÉ News Six-One; you will only get small nuggets of information about what's happening in NI on it's own TV bulletin or on it's website.
In Wales; viewers there only have the option at 6pm to watch ITV News Wales at Six or BBC Wales Today at 6:30pm to get all of the latest information from the health service in Wales. For viewers in Scotland for news broadcasted at 6pm; STV News is the clear winner of what happens from it's own health authorities.
In the era of the internet & radio being present among us. We probably don't know how big the spread of listeners or readers in the nations would be like if they had used those options instead as a complete replacement to TV bulletins or as a complimentary option.