BBC News thread

RE Angry with BBC News

I'm not sure why BBC News "went dark"...and I want to know why, because I'm suspicious it was some sort of negligence.

Furthermore, when the power did go out, they couldn't "roll with the punches" and some services sufferred noticeably (evidence: 1 O'Clock News taking over Millbank and having taped news go out on the live news channels).

This is really bad form -- you'd never see CNN do this. And the BBC has news studios across the country that are operational anyway. Why is it that national services can only come from London? Why couldn't the Wales or Scotland, or even the Look North studio stand in for any of the services (BBC1, BBC News 24, BBC World) in the event of a power failure at TVC?

Granted all of the fancy electronics might not be setup. But the newswires could easily be redirected and I assume these regional studios could take live-feeds from elsewhere. Why isn't there the flexibility to do this.

Again, you'd never see an American or Canadian network "go dark" like this.

When we had the massive power blackouts in the northeast US/southeast Canada in August, CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS all had comprehensive news specials and regular news output--the main evenings programmes were also on air. NBC had output on the main network and MSNBC and CNBC. CBCtv and CBC Newsworld were both on the air.

CBC even maintained its schedule and the national news was broadcast...tiles, graphics and all, from an otherwise dark downtown Toronto.

So in spite of the fact that my comments may come across as insensitive and ignorant (which I regret), I still would like to know why the BBC is the only major broadcaster in the Western world were a power failure could land the networks "on-their-arse" for so long?

When the BBC1 Titles change in January or sometime in the New Year, will they be the same as the BBC News 24 titles?

And can anyone tell why the BBC doesn't relaunch everything together and leaving the BBC1 titles till the new year, when half the UK don't have News 24? Pointless!

I'll shut up now!!! lol

1. the BBC services didn't "go dark" - some sort of service was maintained

2. though I guess the BBC Nations and Regions could sustain News 24 if necessary, the fact is that it's not really worthwhile having such complicated contingency plans for something that happens so infrequently.

[quote="Phileas Fogg"]And, you only have to notice that when the power does go out there's no real way to maintain all of their news services (evidence: 1 O'Clock News taking over Millbank and having taped news go out on the live news channels).{/quote]

News 24 didn't put out any taped news, only 2 editions of Hardtalk to allow preparation and rehersal time in Millbank.



As has previously been mentioned on here, all of the switiching equipment is controlled by computer. If there is no power to these computers, the feed cannot be switched.



Well, CNN is based in Atlanta, not NY so no problem for them. Anyway, the situations were somewhat different. In the BBC case I believe that the problem was that the circuits to allow the backup power to be used broke down. In NY the broadcasters were able to use their backup power supplies.



So long? News 24 was off air for about 20 minutes, Radio 4 & 5 were off air for about 15 minutes. After that live services resumed. Not exactly "so long"!

.

Actually, the One O'clock News from Millbank went out on BBC News 24 too. The only recorded news to go out was when the power failure happened on BBC World - which is standard practice for them. It hardly made the viewers suffer, as they were having almost up-to-date news (it was only half an hour old), and it wasn't as if they were being misled as to what was happening - there was a big enough 'RECORDED' DOG in the top left!

As for your suggestion about using regional studios - surely, it couldn't work! The regional news teams have got their own programmes to make, let alone take over from a 24-hour news channel at the drop of a hat! There'd be no graphics, packages, presenters, technical staff, broadcast journalists which are related to the channel - how could they pull it off for the sake of a few hours, when it would be a lot easier to stick a recorded bulletin on while they are shifting their teams to another studio (in the BBC's case, Millbank) and then resume as normal? I wouldn't mind, but it was only BBC World that had the recorded news - News 24 kept on the air live throughout, and even then, World was back on the air as normal at 10am.

You just don't seem to get it, from what I have read and heard (and someone may back me up on this) it was a knockout to the very nerve centre of the whole operation.

Also the BBC could have had a back-up system in place but some review carried out back yonder indicated that it was not viable to pay for such a system, it was a risk worth taking not to have the back-up and save money.

Absolute tosh.

When the power went in New York, CNN's Time-Life studios, on which they spent millions and millions of pounds, were totally out of use for two days. The best they could do was to have Wolf Blitzer on the phone for hours, later getting him a camera and live position to work with. Programming had to be presented from DC and Atlanta.

Exactly what I said a bit earlier. CNN headquarters are in Atlanta not NY

Confused?



Don't think they'd follow BBC One with the slug- they don't normally just bring up the story strap- it almost always appears as a full aston only....but who knows from Monday

A lot has been said about contingency plans and how the BBC should have been prepared for what happened on friday, but in all fairness the situation would have been difficult to predict.

Firstly it was not known if there was a power problem or even a fire.

Secondly it was not as if the whole of TVC was out of use, work was able to continue in some areas without a problem.

Thirdly N24 was not broadcasting from the same newsroom it had been coming from for the past 4 years.

Considering the scenario that was presented, it was well managed since on N24 the only programming that was lost was two half hour slots which were in the second half of the hour anyway. Imagine if this had happened on Sky or the ITV NC, how long would it take for broadcasting to return to normal and what would be the extent of recorded news programmes?

Now, back to the relaunch... Is there anymore news on changes to the N24 schedule? Something that has been said often on this forum is that N24 should not show Breakfast, and I personally hope that this arrangement will come to an end. Perhaps this is already the plan for monday with N24 returning to when it was live during this time, in which case the relaunch would not be at 9.00am as expected, but could be as early as before or after The World Today. That would be a kick in the knickers for all those who are setting their VCR for 9 on monday morning.

As it's been said a dozen times before, by people who work at the BBC, the relaunch will be at 9am. No earlier! No later!