BBC News 8pm 90 seconds slot

Which is exactly what all the regional programmes had always* done up until about 1999. * (I was born in 1980) So, this business of trying to make the regional programme seem like "a 25-minute "opt-out" within an hour-long Six o'Clock News" is still a relatively new phenomenon.

I can understand them wanting the Six and the regions to run straight into each other without a gap at 1830, as it helps keep viewers on the channel rather than them being tempted to switch channels between programmes. But I've always thought that it's rather over-egging the "hour-long Six " pretence to have the 1855 national recap, particularly as it's only England (and C.I. and Manx!) that bothers to take the update.

The regional presenters are perfectly capable of mentioning both national and regional stories in their own end-of-programme recap, and they did so until 1999. Reporting Scotland, Wales Today, and Newsline presenters have presumably never stopped doing so, even between 1999 and now. So this change seems a sensible one, as the the 1855 update always felt a bit pointless to me. I hope that if/when The One Show ends, that the 1855 update doesn't return.

I agree, they all seem to be talking as if it is a major scheduling change, like axing News at Ten, it's only going to be a short summary "It will be the first BBC bulletin to be introduced since the Six O'Clock News began in 1984" indeed

Plus it seems that all they've done is moved the 6.55 one an hour later so it isn't strictly new anyway

It'll be interesting to see how long the regions keep up the committment to have a national headline at the end of their programme, on Look North's live OB last night they barely bothered with it

I think there is much more value to be gained from a trailer for the 10pm news at 9pm myself (as happens quite often without insulting the intelligence of the viewer).


What's the situation with the ONE show now - last time didn't they move the headline recap to 7.25pm?

You may want to read the BBC Editors blog from Craig Oliver about the new summary
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/07/a_new_bulletin.html
And also it's interesting that no one says that Newsbeat is dumbing down in its short summaries when it does celebrity stories written in a less formal way but when it comes to TV everyone shouts out "dumbing down".

Because Newsbeat is on Radio 1...a radio station generally aimed at a younger audience. BBC ONE is mainstream - aimed at everyone. Therefore, it has to strike the right balance.

Newsbeat isn't patronising - that's the difference. Natasha Kaplinsky is!


Five News have managed for a decade to do their (ever decreasing) 5 News Updates without being patronising either - but still remain informative and modern (for want of a better word).


60 Seconds isn't as patronising either - though it's annoying the first and last 10 seconds of it seem to be used to plug what is next on BBC3.

Of course several different versions were trialled... I suspect London want a full 90secs of Natasha and a 10 second regional opt.
Sadly it looks like the research suggests the audience preferred the entire bulletin done by the regional news team.

Oh well. Anything's better than having Kerplunksky reading it.

Which is exactly what it is trying to do by introducing this summary. The One, Six and Ten is there for people that want 30 minutes bulletins and the 8pm summary for people that just want a quick fix.

Its obviously going to be presented by either a Six or Ten presenter and probably it'll be interchangeable, it certainly won't be Natasha EVERY night, so saying that it'll be **** cos of her is just nonsense.

I agree that they need to be careful not be make it patronising, something which Newsbeat often succeeds at, but I think on the whole this is a good thing and I'm sure it'll develop overtime.

I think Newsbeat is hugely patronising. It uses words like 'stuff' which are only added to make it sound cool. The BBC should be trying to improve the diction of our youth, not embracing Vikki Pollard vocabulary.

I've just added this to the blog entry ... I wonder if it'll be published.