Weekend bulletins & scheduling

When the BBC did the two Saturday bulletins, it was largely the same copy that was then repeated during the evening bulletin, which was prepared in the week. Even today, BBC regional bulletins on a Saturday appear to be a training ground for junior reporters to get their VT's on-air with minimum content.

At least the one remaining bulletin does a brief segment of the sports results. Sunday on the other hand appears to have more resources.

I didn't realise they had to be honest but I suspect it was more a timing thing than DQF. When the BBC introduced Sportsday into the BBC1 schedule they aired Football Focus at 12, Sportsday at 12.45 and the news at 1pm, but that was quickly changed with the news returning to 12noon and everything losing 5 minutes to fit in the one hour slot, so the regional news must have been sacrificed.

Wasn't the regional bulletin still broadcast after the midday national bulletin on BBC1 for a period?

Surely, the BBC could have, for the sake of consistency with regard to regional news on both days of the weekend, broadcast a regional bulletin after the Saturday late evening national news.

The weekend consists of Saturday and Sunday. So why have more regional news coverage on BBC 1 on Sunday than on Saturday?

Actually on BBC One on Sundays, there are national bulletins at 9:02/09:57 in Marr, and at 12:00 or thereabouts during Sunday Politics, and a 20mins regional opt (recorded on Fridays) which could be amended to include a special report.

There is a regional bulletin in the evening.

I'm not sure why there are fewer on Saturdays.

In fairness, Breakfast is broadcast until 10 on Saturdays. That and the broadcast of summaries at the start and end of the Marr show are probably recognition of the reduction of daytime news coverage at weekends.

I'm sure the Saturday lunchtime regional news was there until quite recently. I hadn't noticed it wasn't still airing to be honest. Personally I don't see the need for the late Sunday bulletin and I'm surprised it hasn't gone as well, though the BBC is in a bit of a mess at the moment really with the continual conflict between having to defend what it does and save costs.

I can't speak from the UK perspective but stations in the US are expanding their weekend offerings. Many now have hour long bulletins at 11 PM Sunday nights. I believe part of the reasoning is that on Sunday afternoon/evenings people want to know what's coming up for the week ahead an how to prepare.

Plus on Saturdays people are more active and out of the house since the next day is not a "school day" so they can do more. Sunday's you wind down and go back into reality.

The Saturday lunchtime bulletin was only there for a couple of years, the BBC traditionally only had 1 five minute bulletin on both days for decades. (Late 2009 to early 2014 according to an Internet search)

When cuts were required, the Saturday lunchtime was obviously the least watched, by a significant margin I expect so was axed.

As said the bulletins on Saturday are mostly filled with pre prepared content, often a story about tomorrow's Sunday Politics item, with maybe some actual news in brief and the football results.

Leeds always seemed to put more resources into Saturday than Sunday. Sunday was always an Ian White self- op job (usually with dubious backtiming of the closing music) while Saturday was in the main studio, back in the day.

I thought the Sunday late regional bulletins pulled in fairly decent viewing figures, hence their continued presence (and generally fixed times)?

That said, BBC London's usually seem to consist of a repackaged piece from the Sunday Politics, and a plug for the next evening's Inside Out...

The Sunday lunchtime bulletin is at 1300 (unless there is sport disruption). Think it has been like that for a couple of years now

That was always the case in all regions because the Saturday teatime bulletin included the football results and usually some other sports news as well plus a couple of live reports on the phone. There's a clip on the brilliant Unbhan YouTube channel of the last ever broadcast from BBC Manchester's old old studio in Piccadilly which was a Saturday teatime and it's a double header, as was the case for many years, and it's mostly all sport. Even today sport dominates in the Saturday teatime regional news. Not the case on Sundays.



It's not about consistency, it's about what the audience wants. If the audience wanted regional news on a Saturday night there would be some, but nobody does. Nothing happens on a Saturday night and Saturday night is about sparkle and excitement, not the regional news. On a Sunday not much happens either but they can rehash stuff from Sunday Politics and there's a tradition of boring programmes on a Sunday.

THAT SAID, a few years back when there were two or three Six Nations matches with not much space between them or any other sport coverage for several hours at teatime, they did occasionally run the regional news in the late evening instead. But it looked totally out of place.