BBC News at 10 to be shorter

The BBC is planning to cut the News at 10 by more than 10 minutes in an attempt to stop viewers flocking to ITV and appeal to younger audiences.

Under the plans, which could be implemented as soon as March, five minutes would be cut from the national news, four minutes from the nations and regions bulletins and a minute and half from the weather.

Peter Sissons, a former presenter of the BBC’s flagship news programme, condemned the corporation, describing the decision as a “breach of their public duty”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a3490ee2-2cbf-11e9-af5a-20917663f412

This is Baffling? What younger viewers?

Well the weather will be easy enough to save time, just do it like this

But... what do ITV actually show at 10.45? If it's not Peston or a documentary it's a repeat of something seen at the weekend. The BBC actually probably show more unique content for younger viewers than ITV do after the news with Cuckoo and Stacey Dooley.

And by the time the ITV Regional News finishes the BBC only really overlaps their regional news by a further 30 seconds then there's the weather forecast, so all in all it's only about 3 and a bit minutes longer.

Dare I say this is a very lame excuse to try and cut their news commitments by 50 minutes a week.

Surely this more of a case of being back where we were 2 years ago rather than an actual cut because it was only 2 years back when The Ten was extended by the same amount!

Here's the thread from 38 months ago when the extension was announced.

Presumably, we can just reverse the BBC's self-important congratulatory PR puff quotes from that time:

"The extended shortened Ten will give audiences even more less news analysis and explanation"

"Now we’ll have still more less scope to explain the events that impact the country and help to make sense of the changing world around us."

“Through research, our audience has told us that they want more less from our evening news service. This format allows audiences to see more fewer regional stories and gives us the no opportunity to get under the skin of the issues alongside content that reflects arts and culture in different parts of the UK.”

Does that mean Friday's edition, including regional news and national weather, will finish by 10:25pm in order to make way for Graham Norton?

Bizarre decision.

Unless it's intended to give Newsnight a boost? (But more likely itv's late regional bulletin.)

This story almost feels like fake news. It doesn't make sense on any level.

Unless the news is true and the reasons have been made up, as as we know ITV News at Ten gets a fraction of what the BBC News does, and ITV show nothing of great importance after the news and all of it rates low.

Makes perfect sense to me. ITV News at Ten has gone down the longer analytical route. Newsnight has an analytical approach. What is BBC News at Ten adding?

In my mind, it makes no sense:

- in terms of ratings, apart from those odd days when BBC News at Ten is delayed for whatever reason, it beats the competition hands-down;
- in scheduling terms, is there any evidence to suggest people flock over to itv at 10:45pm? Is it really that much of a key slot for either channel? Question Time on Thursdays still seems to be retaining a decent chunk of the news audience, example;
- on nights when there is very little of note on BBC One, the 6 and 10 News bulletins are often the highest rating programmes;
- with a pretty busy news agenda at the moment, it seems daft to cut down news output on BBC One in a key peak-time bulletin.

If the rationale for this is to divert people to the BBC News Channel or online, purely for the sake of chasing the "yoof", how utterly foolish. BBC One needs all the help it can get at the moment in terms of viewing figures and shares and cutting down a tentpole at 10pm seems utterly misguided.

In my humble opinion.

I expect its just a budget cut. They know all the viewers will stick around, and they've just made up a reason to justify it.

How is it a budget cut? MORE news has been a sign of budget cuts for BBC 2.

I’d guess this is all about the ratings for the programmes that follow it.