BBC World News - to 14th January 2013

I was watching BBC World News last weekend and was surprised to see 'Final Score w/ Mark Chapman' was on the channel. Didn't think British football results were so important to a global audience. I'm guessing they are trying different things to attract new audiences and given the boat race isn't a majorly long event it may be a trial of some sort on the channel. Anything to bring new punters in I guess.

Maybe they're starting to take a page out of CNN International's book on weekends, too-- all sport and no news.

Seems a logical progression, after all BBC World Service RADIO features live sport, so why shouldn't an international television channel do the same, rights permitting.

Because they renamed BBC World to include the word 'News', only now to include non-news programming. Go figure.

In an era of specialized digital channels, why would a news service play with its brand identity this way (unless this is a strictly one-off thing)? People turn to BBC World News when they want to know what's happening around the world, enjoy an incisive interview, or perhaps watch a current affairs documentary. There are plenty of specialized sports channels out there; BBC World News can't possibly compete with them or even complement them in a meaningful way, so it should stick to what it does best.

Frankly, live sports on BBC World News strikes me a bit like, say, political programming on Eurosport.

Final Score has been airing on BBC World News for years now, it's broadcast after BBC One/Red Button show is over from 5:30pm to 6pm (UK time). Same with Inside Sport airing when it's also broadcast on BBC One. I personally don't think BBC World News will start airing live sports coverage, as it's a weekend - it might just be a once off event.

As a long time World watcher, I consider it's probably a cost-saving initiative, whereby the Company ("The BBC") would save money by combining it's resources to show output which is being shared with other BBC outlets at the same time (such as Final Score, for example).

Whereby one could accept that Dateline London and Newsnight are acceptable in this category (i.e. they are news driven and therefore align with the BBC World News theory), I am not so sure that Final Score or the OXCAM Boat Race or the recent Baftas Coverage warrants playout on BBC World News at all! These are very much BBC domestic issues and not necessarily what a global audience wants to see. (After all, CNN or AJE didn't cover these events globally, so why should BBC World News have done so.)

The the single example of Final Score (which concurrently airs on BBC Network tv as well as using pooled resources from other BBC units) - surely to be consistent in representing it's entire global audience, shouldn't BBC World News then also air a "live" football results service for the Italian, German and Spanish leagues, or any other for that matter? (Ok, before everyone starts ranting about how massive the English premier league is and what a huge global audience it has.............etc, etc......in response, so do the other leagues mentioned and so do other sports in other regions where the audiences are relatively higher due to population numbers.)

BBC World of course doesn't have special results programmes for these audiences and scores are shunted into the back-end of a regular BBC World News bulletin at the weekend. Final Score is only aired because it is made by the BBC anyway. It is not commissioned specially for the World audience.

Off topic - long day for Peter Dobbie yesterday. Morning shift plus The Hub later on.

And does anyone see the point of that Paddy O'Connell slot "Weekend World"? There is something terribly shameful about this programme. It's literally no more than a broom cupboard scenario.

As a general point though BBC World is a British based channel. Don't they also have a UK Report show too? While it might not be representative for the whole world it is only a small part of their weekly output

And from what I know off BBC World it's better than CNNI which has three hours a day on weekdays of CNN/US shows which are mostly focused on US issues and therefore not particularly representative of the wider world

[quote=

And does anyone see the point of that Paddy O'Connell slot "Weekend World"? There is something terribly shameful about this programme. It's literally no more than a broom cupboard scenario.[/quote]

I think Weekend World is a good show...Paddy is certainly a good host for the show. The thinking behind the show is BBC WORLD NEWS is focusing it lifestyle and docs on the weekend. No more these shows will be on the weekday. He brings the audience behind the scence and ask the editors and presenters about the shows. This wasn't done before and I don't think it is a bad idea. For too long these good programs weren't given a face and reference. All you saw was show played over and over that you couldn't identify with. People wanted something like this from what I have seen on the BBC GOBAL MINDS website.

Is Owen Thomas still with the channel?

I saw him last weekend, James.

He was on this morning around about 8am