The RTS Television Journalism Awards

The category's a bit of a joke really - what with only two possible nominees. Neither channel's done anything particularly spectacular in the last year but they've got to give it to one of them. On balance I think they probably should've given it to the Beeb - but the RTS seems to have a bit of a downer about the Corporation this year.

I think Sky News winning may have something to do with Nick Pollard winning the Lifetime Achievement award.

Matt Williams

Matt Willis is the king of the jungle

Oops, They are similar names!

A deserved slap in the face for sh**e news shows like the BBC 6 pm news . Channel 4 should win it in my view as they are consistent if not exciting.
I think ITV are lucky to win anything after recently pruning their news presence down to a minimal size.

Agree with the comments that News 24 should have won the news channel award again. Sky news are still in a mess and havn't found a way out yet.

I'm a bit concerned at comments that BBC News 24 only transmits for 14 hours a day....if so wouldn't it be named BBC News 14?

Yes I disagree with the concept of having the 1, 6 and 10 on both N24 and BBC1, that was something which just stunk of money-saving cheapness on the ITV NC. But to disparage the half-hour themed shows like Reporters, WBR, Click, HardTalk, Straight Talk, Dateline London, The Record and Talking Movies as not being news is talking nonsense. In any event, when major breaking news occurs these are always the first to go.

I actually took out the 1, 6, 10, Breakfast and the overnight simulcast with World. The half hour themed programmes are fine as they are often quickly removed for breaking news. The N6 bulletins, Breakfast and the graveyard World shift are not dropped.

I agree, it was well deserved. ITV is always my first choice for news.

That's just not true. The 1, 6 and 10 are dropped for breaking news - like only today no 1pm as there was the Commons statement on Iraq. Breakfast covers Breaking News as it is a news programme - and N24 no longer take the softer part from 0830 and ofcourse the overnight service covers Breaking News just like they do in the day. The amount of domestic breaking news is very little overnight and actually News 24 provides a much better service between 0100 and 0500 than Sky ever do. How many live correspondents do Sky have on during that time - very very very few. You can't say that for overnights on News 24. Sky is basically a re-run hour after hour.

Seconded. I have seen News 24 pull out of the One before to cover some breaking news.

Nicky, I've always respected what you've said - you do work for BBC News after all - but can you honestly, hand on heart, say that Breakfast covers breaking news like a rolling news channel should do? Admittedly, I watch between 8 and 8.30, so maybe they're winding down, but all they have is the headlines, an extended piece on one thing or another, a weather forecast from the BP garden, a comedy business report from Declan, and then some consumer item or other.

Breakfast is not rolling news, and News 24 would not break away from what is 2.5 hours of cosy consumer news in the event of breaking news. Breakfast would stick up their breaking news banner and cover it for a few moments. The only time I've seen them go into proper rolling news mode was when there was the huge airport security alert last August.

Indeed, and the Six and Ten are frequently dropped on N24 in favour of covering rolling stories.

I do wonder just what the cost saving benefits of simulcasting the National bulletins are though, mainly because N8 remains staffed and 'ready to go' if a story breaks and they need to cut away from N6. There may be some savings in broadcasting charges for those 90 mins or less per day but this seems to be an uncomfortable compromise bearing in mind that it results in a lesser (and arguably more complicated, for those who make it happen) service to maintain.

It strikes me that the only substantial cost savings would come if the BBC were to completely bite the bullet and get rid of N6 bulletins, with all National bulletins coming from N8. This is, of course, not what anybody wants to happen, and would take things more towards the rather unhappy ITVNC setup which on the whole pleased nobody.

Given that both N6 and N8 need to be staffed during the Nationals, and that it is difficult to appreciate just where the cost savings are coming from to justify simulcasting the Nationals on N24, I can't honestly see any particularly substantial benefits to the viewer. The real cost savings will only materialise if the BBC ever eliminated N6 from the equation entirely, but as they're not going to do that, I struggle to find any reasonable justification for saving a fractional amount of money in order to provide a tangibly lesser service in terms of an undermined N24.

I can certainly see the benefits of simulcasting Breakfast on N24, although I would argue that a better arrangement would be to simulcast the "European Breakfast"/The World Today hours from BBC World on N24 to provide an alternative service to those who want something more news oriented than the often fluffy BBC One Breakfast offering. That, however, is a block of programming, during which the studio does not regularly need to be staffed or prepared to immediately output, and including The World Today, that offers three and a half hours during which N8 is effectively "offline" and does not need to be ready to go on air. The half hours for the Nationals do not realistically present themselves as providing the same cost saving benefits - and any cost savings probably get eaten up by the fairly meaty wages of BBC One newsreaders anyway!