BBC World News - to 14th January 2013

^ Can't wait to see those great views.

It looks like Lyse has already moved to BH. Exciting times ahead for BBC World.



https://twitter.com/bbclysedoucet

Okay, I suspect I'm going to upset some forumers here, but I've watched a lot of World on holiday the past week and I'm not at all impressed. It was a technical mess most days with mis-cued items, mute Idents and puzzlingly bits of incomplete out of vision voice over. I noticed though that when Peter Dobie(sp?) presented is was much more professional rather than the student TV it was before.

I actually agree with you, despite being a long-time on-and-off World viewer. Before 2004, BBC World was quite capable of producing high quality bulletins which, most notably, had well-timed closing sequences. I haven't seen one close of a BBC World bulletin in recent years that has gone well. Normally it's so rushed that the presenter (whomever it is) makes a complete mess of it. Add to that the wrong vamps and stings are regularly played, and not just within a programme... sometimes I've heard (for example) the GMT vamp being used on World News. And of course, there are the failed VTs, incorrect astons etc that you mentioned.

Part of me wonders whether this is down to the fact that the channel now has far fewer back half hour recorded programmes than it used to. Back in 2001-ish, most back half hours, even on weekdays, were pre-recorded programmes, with occasional live WBR/Asia Today/Sport Today. But shows like Click Online, Top Gear, Fast Track, Hard Talk and even Rough Science filled most back half hours. This enabled N9 (as it was then) to rehearse bits and pieces for the next news bulletin, be it headlines, complex graphics sequences etc. I've certainly seen a correlation between the decrease in recorded programming and an increase in technical cock-ups. I think also that most of BBC World's news bulletins remain technically rather complicated. There are loads of different programmes, each with their own graphics, titles, music, lighting requirements, camera shots etc. They also have advert breaks which they have to hit on time, which can't be easy amongst all the chaos. I think the reason the BBC News Channel copes better with being live as much as World is now is because it's comparatively technically simple. People here may complain about the boring studio and unimaginative camera angles, but because it remains so formulaic, there's not much scope for error. There's really only one brand - BBC News - and as such, it's rare for incorrect titles, graphics or music to be used.

Just my two pence... as someone who's been watching both channels for a fairly long time now.

I wouldn't say that - there was a period between 2009-2010/11'ish where the channel did go through a time of having an unbelievable amount of technical problems, on air gaffes and hick ups - even with a stripped down approach. There were people on here, and on another forum site saying that if they couldn't get it right with the basic approach they were doing - to strip it back even further.

This phase seemed to stop around mid last year when I think something must have been said at the BBC. It was raised on here in the News channel thread and i'm sure I saw a couple of threads about it on DigitalSpy for a time too.

I'd love to know what you think might have been said?

I do not want to spectulate what, if anything, was said.

I honestly can't say I've seen that many in recent times. Certainly nowhere near as many as occur on BBC World on a daily basis. Obviously one has to allow some margin of error as they are 24-hour live news channels, after all. But BBC World does seem particularly bad these days.

Maybe there's been a reversal of fortunes. The News channel have tightened up on their pres. and possibly World need to do the same thing. Remember the cut backs at News won't help matters much.

My hotel room has two streams of WN, one is quieter and has no ticker, the other is louder and has a ticker, World News Today is currently on air.

Probably BBC Four and World News itself.

New series in August: Mishal Husain Meets . Starts 28 July.

http://i.minus.com/i51lytyv3NF6j.png

Mishal Husain Meets is an exciting new series that goes beneath the outer shell of Asian personalities, from entrepreneurs, artists and actors to opinion formers and sports people. Filmed in Singapore in front of a live audience, Mishal Husain, one of the BBC’s most experienced and respected presenters, is hosting the series of one on one interviews with Asia's most interesting, celebrated and controversial personalities.

http://i.minus.com/iD4YMRCXjizG6.png

Good Lord, not another programme centred around one of their presenters. They're turning into CNN! I'm in the process of digitising some old VHS tapes and one I came across last night was an evening of BBC World from February 2003. It's amazing how the channel has changed. Every hour it was a standard news bulletin with programmes like WBR, Asia Today, Earth Report, Top Gear as well. I'm not entirely sure I like it better now. I appreciate the ratings have vastly improved since 2003, but it certainly was less personality-driven. I know BBC World aren't alone in this; I blame CNN for first moving in that direction.