BBC News 24

I think some of the weekend bulletins could make use of the CSO that is used on the Sunday morning bulletins. When the bulletins aren't very long and there are no studio guests or sports presenter it would work. Whenever there is a two way jsut use the split screen. The only difficulty would be having a wide shot into the bulletin but I don't imagine this being impossible to do.

Or you simply position news bullitens on BBC 1 at smart times, like 12.00 or 12.15 as examples. That way they come from N6, using the on air News 24 presenter and you do a simulcast. I suspect they won't now get specific presenters on to do the weekend nationals - yet I also can't see Chris Lowe and Anita McVae doing them every evening.

Maybe they will just move them to TC7 and use someone like Louise or Mishal. Still, to be fair Mishal seems to be the only regular now who isn't a News 24 presenter...

- Louise Minchin
- Jane Hill
- Simon McCoy
- Emily Maitlis

seem to be the regulars now. Fiona doesn't seem to do the nationals all that much now, and Darren Jordan was the really regular presenter at weekends and they never seemed to replace him at all.

The weekend bulletins have changed though over the past few years and the BBC are making far more use of BBC News 24 presenters who are already in and using them to present the bulletins rather than bringing in additional staff. A sensible use of resources. Peter Sissons presented the bulletin today on BBC One at 12.10. The idea of fixed bulletin times does seem sensible in some degrees.

Good point! Of course the whole idea of this exercise is to closedown a studio (which will be achieved) - I suppose there's no reason why they can't use TC7 for the weekend bulletins, with costs being roughly the same as they are now (as they currently staff N6)?

I think using TC7 would increase costs, assuming you mean using the full studio desk. At present if I'm correct the only set change between the two studios is removing the Newsnight / Newsnight Review set and putting up the Politics Show / Andrew Marr sets (which I think are both up at the same time)

If you put the weekend news in with a desk that will mean setting that up after Newsnight. then putting up the Politics and AM Show sets, then later resetting up the weekend news desk.

Surely a desk and CSO screen would do in TC7 for the lunchtime bulletins at weekend for ocassions when the timing makes a simulcast with N24 impractical.

Not very easy when the studio the CSO is in isn't staffed. The CSO position used for The Andrew Marr Show and The Politics Show is in a corner of the studio they share (the one used weekdays for Working Lunch, Newsround, Newsnight etc.) - it is a small desk sat in front of a green flat. It is only staffed 0500-1300ish on Sundays, and not staffed at all on Saturdays or Sunday afternoons. If you are going to staff that studio and gallery then you could use a real set... (The CSO position is only used to avoid having to staff both studios)

BBC One scheduling decide when the bulletins are broadcast based on their schedule - News don't decide when they are... They can be discussed - but the channel has to have the say as to where they are scheduled - after all ratings suffer if you put the News in the wrong place...

The desk and CSO screen could already be there - but staffing the studio for a bulletin could be trickier... (And cost money)

Well they've had the Sunday evening news in the wrong place for too long now...

What about the broom cupboard down the corridor from N6?

I'm confused - surely there are quite a lot of set changes that happen in TC7, especially with the six and Breakfast in there:

Breakfast Sofa/ Desk
Newsnight desk and sofa/ chairs
Andrew Marr Show/ Politics Show
Working lunch use a different sofa and desk for it
Newsround use a different desk (for sofa) and sofa, with no desk.

So really they have and will have lots of set changes - surely it would work out better to:
swap the set for Newsnight after Politics show
Use that for weekend news bullitens
Have weekend breakfast from N6
Present weekend nationals/ six from Newsnight's set (provided they made the desk bigger.

What's wrong with that? Why use bother with a CSO screen that means only 1 camera shot?