BBC World News - to 14th January 2013

Surely they'll be current designs generated in HD, like the Breakfast ones, rather than running VizRT in SD and upscaling which would make them appear very soft.

Oh, I thought Breakfast's ones were just upscaled to HD. Must have got the wrong end of the stick. Anyway, the point is I think it will be a similar situation with Breakfast HD until domestic moves.

Her game was aired in the USA yesterday:

I have noticed that the time delay between London and Singapore during the LIVE openings and closures of Newsday appears to be getting worse. I remember personally remarking previously that the time delay management was excellent,and that Rico and Babitas timing was so good, they appeared to be sitting next to each other.

Now, there is a lot of awkward pauses and delays, usually at the Singapore end, and it makes the bulletin appear a bit more inefficient as a result.

Not a major issue, but surely the technology used today is the same technology used when Newsday was launched. If so, why is the time delay aspect now worse? How come they were able to do it better in the beginning?

Sorry for the zillions of questions.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that's noticed the delays, like for example on Monday's program we went to Rico for about 30 seconds of silence then back to Babita to read the story instead.

When an interview is done from Singapore it always seems awkward (unless they are in the Singapore studio) as there's such a long delay between the guest answering and the next question being asked.

I have to admit I dislike the whole Newsday format and specifically Rico Hizon (which I think is not a very good presenter); I think the BBC should produce a 1 hour program dedicated to the Asia-Pacific region with the same format as World News America with business updates being originated from Singapur.

Can someone explain to me why on earth BBC World are involving themselves with coverage of the UK Olympic Torch relay ? Surely this sort of fluff, is UK-Centric, usually something BBC World go out of their way to avoid ?

They seem rather muddled with their role, I only see the channel when I'm abroad, but this indicates a shift, a few years ago they wouldn't even make it over obvious that they are based in London.

Surprisingly, a lot of overseas viewers are fascinated by all things British, including the BBC itself. Therefore, something like a British Olympics and a Royal Jubilee are amazingly popular digests for certain viewers of BBC World.

For example, I am presently in the Far East and in a time zone 8 hours ahead of the UK. At 8pm in the evening, the hotel lounge is jam packed with people from all corners of the Globe, glued avidly to GMT to see the latest on the torch run. It's quite remarkable, in fact. I would go so far as to say that the current British Olympics is generating far more interest here than the Beijing games did, despite being almost on the doorstep!

I do share your comments somewhat, Mark. The channel does appear to be a bit muddled at the moment and difficult to fathom it's direction. However, this week is a good example of World covering things widely and at its very best IMO with Tim Willcox in Greece, David Eades in Canada, Lyse Doucet in Cairo, Lucy Hockings in Bristol with the Olympic torch, and so on.

All we need to do now is sort out Sport Today!

The reason why Komla Dumor is leaving World Service Radio?


Also, I remember a time we used to joke about having Kate Silverton sneaking onto World. Well, she's on GMT today and also was a couple of weeks ago. Contrary to my previous comments, she's actually very good indeed.

George Alagiah would be *excellent* on Newsnight in the UK!

I have to disagree entirely - I think Rico Hizon is a very good presenter, and he can also conduct good interviews. It makes for an interesting format, despite the puny, outdated studio (which is in dire need of updating).

This video might be of interest to some - some 12 minutes of footage from the early years of BBC World (or BBC World Service Television as it was then) in 1992. Interesting to see Pamela Armstrong (formerly of ITN) presenting the news!

Thanks for that video, itsrobert.

22 seconds into this clip, a couple of points:

A) I'm presuming this is BBC World, as I recognise the presenter Rob Butler, but who is the other guy?
B) It appears to be showing a programme called 'World Business Day'. Can anyone shed any light on what this programme was about, and the years it was broadcast, and who it's main presenters were? Was it a predecessor to 'World Business Report'?