BBC News Channel: Presentation

That was absolutely fascinating! What a coup for BBC News. He gave a very frank and honest interview.

He talked to CNN 3 hours ago.

That was quite clever but I wonder is there any need for the split screen when the ceremony was shown in full and all its glory on BBC One, which all News Channel viewers would have access to. The same thing applies to Prime Minister's Questions - you've got uninterrupted coverage on BBC Parliament, coverage and analysis on BBC Two so is there any need for BBC News to continue showing it?

Seems a bit pointless for the News Channel to show it as well to be honest.

But you're assuming that everyone wants to watch one or the other. Not that I was watching TV at the time, but I would personally have preferred to hear about the Georgia Crisis whilst watching the opening ceremony as the news channel provided.

The audiences are not mutually exclusive.

No other channel would have access to the opening ceremony or be able to show clips of it. The BBC have the rights to show it in the UK and others have the rights in their own respective countries. As I mentioned on another thread about this, even BBC World couldn't show highlights of the opening ceremony last night

Sky, ITN, CNN, Euronews, Al Jazeera, Russia Today etc are heavily restricted to what they can show. They cannot show highlights of the events until all the rights holders have shown them, which of course means that they'll be out of date

I see what you're saying and the audiences aren't exclusive but you could argue that about any programme clash where the option is to watch one programme and record the other. Let's say Crimewatch is scheduled at the same time at Mock The Week - I wan't to watch both but I don't split the screen for the two.

I fail to see why someone would choose to watch in essence half of one programme (Olympic coverage) and half the other (Georgian crisis).



I suppose the BBC might as well make the most of the footage they have access to but I just don't think there's a need to show it constantly in a split screen. I think they should show clips of the footage and remind viewers 'you can watch the opening ceremony in full over on BBC One now'.

But your example is of two scheduled routine programmes.

Here we have a once-in-four years event (heightened in interest because of it being China's "advert" to the world) against a breaking news story about a major conflict.

I want both together- as the news channel provided. The fact that the Opening Ceremony was a largely visual event, and the early reports from Georgia largely audio would have helped no end as well.

Both Georgia and the Olympics are newsworthy and given that one as you say is mostly visual and the other mostly audio then they managed to get away with the split screen.

Personally I would rather have total focus on one item and then the other, or I'd watch one and then record the other and play it back after watching the first. I wouldn't run two separate stories at the same time. I'd find it most annoying trying to find out about the Georgian Crisis to have half the screen taken up with the Olympics (especially as they are the same pictures I could watch elsewhere) similarly it would be annoying trying to watch the opening ceremony to have it shrunk to half the screen with the audio of the Georgian Crisis over the top.

I guess we aren't going to agree on this one...

The rights situation regarding the Olympics is very complicated, and has been giving many of us at the BBC a serious headache over the past few weeks - especially in Global News division. NBC paid a vast amount of money for the rights to show the games in the US, and part of the deal were restrictions on other global broadcasters to prevent them from broadcasting commentry, or anythng else from inside the Olympic Village to the any audience outside their 'rights terratory' - whether via TV, Radio or Internet. And as NBC are delaying broadcasting footage until primetime you can image the problems this causes.

I'm not sure exactly what the video rights are, but the lack of footage on BBC World is a good indication of what little rights they have. I noticed some footage of the opening ceremony fireworks was broadcast live on BBC Arabic, but it was shot from some distance away - probably outside the Olympic Village to get round the restrictions. I've also been told by someone in World Service Future Media that pretty much all of the language services have had to make changes to their international internet schedules to blank out or substitute any programmes which might carry embargoed content. Short clips can only be made available online if GeoIP locked to the UK, which the World Service does not do as it kind of takes the 'World' out of the Service.

And as NBC have already bid $2.2billion for the same rights in 2012, it looks like the BBC will also be prevented from broadcasting the London games on BBC World and via the global internet in 2012.

What about those in public places (airports/big screens and even sometimes shops) only showing the News Channel? They also may wish to see it.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. The nature of news channels means that people often watch them in circumstances other than sat on the sofa at home with a remote control at hand.

The BBC News channel often shows on screens in gyms, banks, offices and other places where you can't switch to another channel.

It's the same reason there's a ticker, even though you can press red for the latest headlines.

Ha the sports reporter forgot to put his mic on!