Mondays to Wednesdays the nations, who maintain their full lunchtime bulletin, only get a 15 minute slot at 10.40pm so they'll be running 5 minutes ahead of network if they're not showing regional programmes.
On Thursday's though, because of Question Time, Scotland and Wales get 20 minutes at 10.25pm in order to rejoin network at 10.45pm. But in Northern Ireland, it's still just the 15 minutes because as usual The View is slotted in before Question Time.
I know it won't make a blind bit of difference to most, but it certainly is an unusual occurrence . . .
I see. So effectively a significant reduction to local news on the Friday.
It seems to be a misprint, but TV Choice England has the regional news at 1330 still on a Friday. That could be the answer to the Friday 'issue' that has been created
Is this ultimately a money saving exercise? Extending the late bulletin just means repeating a couple of packages from the 6.30 so costs peanuts, whereas the lunchtime is more likely to have fresh content, so reducing that saves a bit of work which could be translated to needing fewer staff working in the morning?
Most decisions seem to be budget cuts disguised as something else but I'd have thought any money saved in the mornings would be used up in the evenings needing slightly more content. The news will still be breaking during the day too so it's not like they can leave it a few hours before sending reporters out to news stories.
As the stories are developing during the day IMO the longer bulletin is of more worth there where they can throw to lives etc. to pad it out a bit. Even if the late bulletin is essentially an updated repeat of the 6.30pm programme I just don't think that's really what people are looking for at that time. I can understand extending it slightly for the election (indeed I think they have in previous campaigns by a few minutes) but IMO moving 5 minutes from lunch to late would make more sense than 10 minutes.
It's the overlap across three channels I don't think makes any sense - they just about get away with it at the moment but doubling the regional news makes it a real competitor to an already flagging Newsnight.
Mondays to Wednesdays the nations, who maintain their full lunchtime bulletin, only get a 15 minute slot at 10.40pm so they'll be running 5 minutes ahead of network if they're not showing regional programmes.
On Thursday's though, because of Question Time, Scotland and Wales get 20 minutes at 10.25pm in order to rejoin network at 10.45pm. But in Northern Ireland, it's still just the 15 minutes because as usual The View is slotted in before Question Time.
I know it won't make a blind bit of difference to most, but it certainly is an unusual occurrence . . .
Lucky thing is many will be showing opt outs at 10.40 so it does not really effect them.
Is this ultimately a money saving exercise? Extending the late bulletin just means repeating a couple of packages from the 6.30 so costs peanuts, whereas the lunchtime is more likely to have fresh content, so reducing that saves a bit of work which could be translated to needing fewer staff working in the morning?
It does look that way, as the lunchtime actually needs stories already prepared for it. The longer late bulletin can just run a few more reports from teatime at minimal cost.
The stories might not even need updating, it's quite normal for the lead stories on the late bulletin to be the same as lunchtime, or even the same as breakfast, especially when it's based on 'a new report released today shows that Yorkshire has the worst...' Etc.
So the extra part of the 1 o'clock news is taken up by sport from Salford followed by a quick interview on women bishops. You can tell the nations opted out just before the "reminder of the headlines" which was followed by a sting. We got another reminder at the end of the bulletin too.
If a region is having a particularly busy news day, perhaps a developing story happening on their patch, is there anything to stop them staying on air at lunchtime to the same duration as the Nations?