The Weather Thread

From presenters to graphics, this is The Weather Thread at TV Forum.

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Former BBC Weatherman Jack Scott has died.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/bbcweather/forecasters/jackscott.shtml

Just a thought, seen as it was archived because nobody seemed to post, maybe you should make it a wider thread i.e. The Weather or TV Weather, so not to restrict it just to BBC?

RIP Jack.

What IS Liam Dutton wearing today? Dressed in the dark??

How long has "weatherview" being going out just before 8:30pm on the News Channel?

And who on earth thought this would be a good idea?

As I've said numerous times, it's a BBC News disgrace that its flagship 24 hour news channel on an average day will broadcast more weather per hour (approximately 5-6 minutes) than serious business journalism. Or indeed often analysis of the top story. And that's twice every hour guaranteed- even if it means cutting away from live breaking news because it would be a complete DISASTER to miss just one of the 48 weather spots everyday on the News Channel.

And now to add insult to this, they've added a specially extended weather bulletin at 8:25 called Weatherview, complete with rubbish geography diagrams to explain the weather. An utter waste of several minutes of primetime news real estate.

Let's keep the science of weather on documentaries and weather forecasts to the bare minimum. I really believe there is no need for more than one summary per hour, and its position should be entirely fluid with the news agenda. It needs no more than 2 minutes and should be easily voiced by the newsreader in the evenings and overnight (thereby cutting costs which can be diverted into real news reporting).

What percentage of the audience are interested in business news (which I assume you mean stories of interest to business people rather than consumer finance issues) compared to those who are interested in a weather forecast?

Business news of the kind you refer to is a minority interest, compared to the weather which is anything but.

Which is worrying, Business News is being treated better by the BBC NC but wholly inadequately. Thankfully the consumer journalism is being minimalised in the slots though.

The weather is dropped frequently when major breaking stories occur which is of course correct.

What I think Dunedin might have overlooked is that a long weather bulletin is a good opportunity for a changeover of gallery personnel.

This is the classic excuse for the half hourly weather bulletin.

It's very unimaginative. It takes just seconds to think of a dozen more useful uses of 3 minutes every 30- how about slides with details of expected upcoming stories in the next hours/day/week (there's a similar feature on the bbc news website)? How about the market data? How about a timeline slide feature showing key events in the background of the day's top story? How about using the BBC's excellent country profile documents on various countries to educate viewers on a country featured in the news (for those that don't know- a complete joy)

There are so many other potentially useful, different, interesting and newsworthy uses of 10% of the news channel's output. And yes real business journalism is EXACTLY what the BBC should be doing, whilst leaving consumerism to Watchdog.

The other thing about the half hourly news bulletin is that it surely must lose viewers. It completely breaks up the concept of rolling news. When the handover to weather occurs it feels like the end of another bulletin (which let's face it, BBC news treat it as), rather than another facet of a 24 hour rolling operation. That's why Sky have successfully incorporated their much shorter bulletins into the top of the hour, losing the feeling of- "right that's the end of the news, let's see what else is on". The beeb could learn a lot.

Another aspect of the problem I discussed ad nauseam in the old thread so won't fully rehash here. Other than to say the latest incarnation of BBC weather graphics (can't call them new now), make telling a viewer the weather in their area a much longer process than ever before. The pointless flying around the country wastes time.

It's pretty simple really- a person can't be in more than one place at any one time, so most people want to see where they live (full UK view) rather than a zoomed in bit of the other end of the country. They're also more likely to miss their weather given the 1 second fly-past of where they live. 99% of Britons (yes I made up the figure but I'm fairly sure it's correct) don't move about the country substantially within the time-period of the forecast (24-48 hours) so again don't care about seeing the other end of the country.

Business news is not a minority interest! and certainly not now (Could you also please drop your irritating signature line to, its nothing to be proud of)

RIP Liam

I disagree. We're talking here about news which is targeted at what, for the want of a better word, I'll call "business people". This is not the same as reportage of business matters which are of interest to the consumer.

You could liken this to the difference between the content of the Financial Times and the business coverage of less specific broadsheet. Consider the Circulation Figures for October

FT: 154,797
Guardian: 354,272
Independent: 201,019
Telegraph: 843,196
Times: 629,561

I stand by my claim that those who want in-depth (non-consumer) business news are in a minority.



I'm not about to alter a signature I've been using for several years because it "irritates" somebody who has been here for two days.

Sorry, but the Sky News model feels even more separated than the BBC one. The hour ends at :54 with an addenda for the weather at around :58.45. And mid-hour, the weather is separated by sponsor credits. It feels like a total break from the rolling news.

Yes, the BBC weather feels like the end of the hour, but at least it is linked to by the newscaster, rather than on Sky where it is completely separated and the newscaster rarely links to it.

Oh, and I didn't know about the 8.25pm Weatherview, but I was aware of Weatherview at 9.55pm.