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Changes to BBC Parliament & Political Programming

(July 2018)

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BA
bilky asko
Quote:
The BBC has announced changes to its political and parliamentary output to improve its digital coverage, better serve its audiences, and provide more value for money.
The changes include:

  • A new team giving better digital and social coverage - including podcasts - of politics and parliament for audiences who are increasingly getting their news online, especially on mobiles. In an era of concerns about misinformation and ‘echo chambers’ this is designed to bring trusted impartial political coverage to younger audiences
  • A new daily political programme - Politics Live - which will replace Daily Politics from Monday to Friday.
  • A new BBC One half hour stand-alone Sunday Politics programme for each of the nations and English regions, replacing the ‘opts’ currently shown within the Sunday Politics. This will now be shown immediately after Andrew Marr. The UK-wide network edition of Sunday Politics will no longer be broadcast after this month (July).
  • A changed schedule for BBC Parliament: the channel will still broadcast live and replayed coverage of Parliament and the devolved parliaments and assemblies, but will no longer make bespoke programmes and will not air in the weeks when the UK Parliament or the devolved Parliaments and assemblies are not sitting.
  • Politics Live will be presented by Jo Coburn four days a week and Andrew Neil will present a special extended programme on Wednesdays, to include PMQs. The new 45-minute programme (One hour 45 minutes on Wednesdays) will offer viewers a fast-moving, conversational show, featuring a blend of political interviews, discussion and video content designed to be shared digitally, ensuring Politics Live connects with the lives of people around the country.


article here ……..

MEDIACENTRE on BBC.CO.UK
12-Jul-2018 @ 14:31

The Daily Politics changes seem like another exercise in name changes, but the Sunday Politics changes indicate to me that post-Neil, the programme hasn't performed.

The changes to BBC Parliament are interesting too - and seem like an inevitability (as well as a sign its days are numbered).
OM
Omnipresent
The BBC has announced significant changes to BBC Parliament and its political programming.

Notably, BBC Parliament will not air when Parliament is in recess. Nor will there be any bespoke programmes for the channel.

The Sunday Politics will also end in July.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/bbc-announces-changes-to-political-programming
:-(
A former member
No happy about this part:

Quote:
A new BBC One half hour stand-alone Sunday Politics programme for each of the nations and English regions, replacing the ‘opts’ currently shown within the Sunday Politics. This will now be shown immediately after Andrew Marr. The UK-wide network edition of Sunday Politics will no longer be broadcast after this month (July).


Another 8mins cut from Scotland politics. I wonder if Glasgow will just opt out and have 45min show and replace it 15mins filler?

[Mod edit: Please don't copy & paste the entire press release when a publicly accessible link to it has already been provided.]
WL
W1LL
Omnipresent posted:
The BBC has announced significant changes to BBC Parliament and its political programming.

Notably, BBC Parliament will not air when Parliament is in recess. Nor will there be any bespoke programmes for the channel.

The Sunday Politics will also end in July.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/bbc-announces-changes-to-political-programming


Daily Politics gone too, or effectively rebranded as Politics Live. Still Andrew and Jo presenting, though cut to 45 minutes.

Interesting that the regional opts are becoming standalone programmes once again, though still under the Sunday Politics banner. Surely would have been a good time to rebrand those too, perhaps linking them more closely to the regional news brands - or even reviving the old regional political titles. Instead it seems, in typical BBC style, they’ll keep the old branding hobbling along, even though it won’t match any of their new output.
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
The opening paragraph attempts to spin the changes as "improve its digital coverage, better serve its audiences, and provide more value for money". However it's telling that at the bottom of the news under notes to editors it states "like the rest of the BBC, BBC News has substantial savings to make", thereby indicating the real reason for the changes.

To summarise the changes from the media centre article.
- Daily Politics on BBC2 is being replaced by a new programme Politics Live. It'll be presented by Jo Coburn four days a week, and Andrew Neil presenting a special extended programme on Wednesdays, to include PMQs.
- Sunday Politics in it's current form will end in July. When it returns it'll be as a half hour programme for each of the nations and English regions (replacing the current opt-out), and shown immediately after Andrew Marr.
- BBC Parliament will no longer make bespoke programmes and will not air when UK parliament and devolved parliaments & assemblies are not sitting.
TVF
TV Forum Team
Posts from Changes to BBC Parliament & Political Programming have been merged into this topic.
:-(
A former member
Well done, given "bilky asko", lead his post is far better with quote etc to eveyone else, to be fair you should post stuff or something from any quote just in case it goes walkies.


Does that mean BBC Parliament will be used for other duties during the summer and winter? also no more election repeats...
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
Thinking about it further I can't help feeling that the BBC may have been using this week to bury bad news. On yesterday they released the presenter salaries, which perhaps by coincidence was overshadowed by England's semi-final and got significantly reduced coverage in the tabloids. Today's news about cutbacks comes just as President Trump arrives in the UK, and will probably be buried away in the tabloids.
MarkT76, DE88 and bilky asko gave kudos
BA
bilky asko
Charlie Wells posted:
The opening paragraph attempts to spin the changes as "improve its digital coverage, better serve its audiences, and provide more value for money". However it's telling that at the bottom of the news under notes to editors it states "like the rest of the BBC, BBC News has substantial savings to make", thereby indicating the real reason for the changes.

To summarise the changes from the media centre article.
- Daily Politics on BBC2 is being replaced by a new programme Politics Live. It'll be presented by Jo Coburn four days a week, and Andrew Neil presenting a special extended programme on Wednesdays, to include PMQs.
- Sunday Politics in it's current form will end in July. When it returns it'll be as a half hour programme for each of the nations and English regions (replacing the current opt-out), and shown immediately after Andrew Marr.
- BBC Parliament will no longer make bespoke programmes and will not air when UK parliament and devolved parliaments & assemblies are not sitting.


I wonder if they will opt for the quasi-accelerated flow, like at the end of Breakfast, and have Andrew Marr link directly into the regional Sunday Politics programme?
ST
stuartfanning
Such a shame that BBC Parliament will now have many periods 'off air' it seems. Especially when you look at what C-Span does with its three channel on 24/7 in the US.
:-(
A former member
Surly it can't cost that much to repeat broadcast stuff?
DV
DVB Cornwall
The 'new' BBC Parliament arrangements seem more or less identical to other European Parliamentary channels. It doesn't surprise me. Also with the B. word advancing, it's European element too will be removed.

I'd expect some text based replacement like the off air BBC Alba screens and audio from Five Live or maybe Radio Four to fill the recess times.

It's reasonable in the circumstances.

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