The big difference with The Sun brand in Scotland is that it's not as toxic. The Scottish Sun has been on the side of the SNP, so they know their market in both England and Scotland.
Initial observation is that are quite a few Westminster journalists (Tom Newton-Dunn, Matt Chorley, John Pienaar etc) on the station.
There are a lot of hours to fill and there could be a lot of journalists interviewing journalists about the work of other journalists, something the BBC's politics coverage already does too much of.
Radio 4's brand loyalty and £100m odd budget will be a tough one to crack. For all the faults of Today, much of its news and current affairs output (PM, 6pm News, The World Tonight) is excellent.
(Sky is no longer connected to the Murdoch empire)
Agreed but I'm sure it's Boss has a few contacts...
My original point still stands that I expect clips to appear pretty often on TV news outlets including their rivals.
Why else make a radio studio look like a TV one?
It's no different to sister station talkRADIO; when they have a major interview, the clips on social media and the ones fed to TV news bulletins are highly polished:
Look at this recent interview: if it wasn't for the presenter's headphones, the clip could have come from a TV news channel
When I first heard about Times Radio, I thought that I was highly unlikely to listen to it and that it sounded like it'd be rubbish. Now that I've seen the schedule, I'll be giving it a shot when Monday rolls around and provided it remains impartial, I think it'll be pretty decent.
(Sky is no longer connected to the Murdoch empire)
Agreed but I'm sure it's Boss has a few contacts...
It’s not really a matter of opinion, it’s a factual statement! Besides I don’t think there is any indication of Murdoch’s outlets having any particular influence on Sky News.
My original point still stands that I expect clips to appear pretty often on TV news outlets including their rivals.
Why else make a radio studio look like a TV one?
Commercial speech radio no longer really relies on just the radio platform to increase it’s reach. The social media will be almost as important in terms of increasing the reach of the brands. This is a model pioneered by LBC in the UK and certainly isn’t a Murdoch invention. Of course clips of their interviews will turn up on TV news but that’s a welcome result of having news makers as guests.
Is this just airing behind the Times paywall or is it on Digital Radio and free online too?
Free on DAB (though the second national multiplex it's on isn't available as widely as the first) and online. I think people are talking about it as being a promotional tool to drive Times subscriptions?
A good article here on the launch and speech radio in general, though it does annoy me to see this sector thriving at the expense of commercial local radio.
As much as history suggests it wouldn't work you do have to wonder if there would ever be any attempt to replicate it on TV. In many ways they're all doing what London Live should be doing, but I strongly suspect radio (and streaming) is the better medium.