BBC Cuts: BBC2 daytime, Local Radio, Wimbledon/F1 "at risk"

... if you believe the Murdoch press. One of the options being put to the BBC Trust is to axe the BBC2 daytime schedule and have a News Channel simulcast through to 7pm. I think we can see the flaw in that argument already - can't see them having the Six O'Clock News on both BBC1 and BBC2 at 6pm.

Anyway, thanks to a paywall I can't link to The Sunday Times, so have to go to the even darker side instead:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363475/BBC2-plans-axe-daytime-shows-replace-news.html

Hopefully a non-starter and at most they might axe the BBC2 daytime schedule by moving CBBC to BBC2, and daytime content to BBC1. That leaves BBC2 just a couple of hours to fill in the afternoon, which they do with repeats anyway.

I can't see that happening. The axing of the daytime schedule would make little sense, as with the digital switchover to be over in the next year or so, everyone will receive the BBC News Channel on Freeview at no extra cost, meaning a simulcast would be pointless.

I agree that simulcasting is a bit pointless in the digital age. But this thread made me realise that I didn't actually have a clue what BBC 2's daytime programming consists of - so I had a look through the listings. The Daily Politics (and I suppose the GMT simulcast) seem to be the only original programming - everything else just seems to be the same kind of Cash in the Attic/Diagnosis Murder type stuff that's interchangeable with what's on BBC1.

So, in light of that, I'd say this proposal isn't entirely infeasible - as it's hard to see what real value the BBC2 daytime schedule adds when there are so many other channels showing that kind of thing.

Same here! Come to think of it, I don't really know what C4 shows during the day either.

This idea is bananas. What happened to them wanting to bring BBC Three's hours forwards to 5pm?

Slightly off topic, but this seemed the best place to bring it up, but why do they swop the overnight simulcast of the NC between BBC Two & BBC One, leaving BBC Two to 'finish off' with Ceefax?

Can't they keep the simulcast on one channel at a time?

Here's a great idea - why not fill the schedule with educational programmes that may not only be of interest to schools and colleges but adults too? They don't even need to make new progs, I'm sure they've got plenty they could repeat. Seeing as it's during the day they could even call it Daytime on Two

There is a serious side to that. Some of the progs on Daytime on Two used to be very entertaining and educational in a non patronising way. I'm sure some people still want to learn languages etc. I think we've all learned as much as we need to know about property / antiques, and how to be sarcastic on a game show. I think they should also make up their mind about CBBC and let it run to half five-ish on either channel.

The idea was that:
- All BBC One's 'downtime' should be filled in with BBC News 24, thereby making BBC One a 24 hour service (sort of, this could be argued a lot easier in 1998 than today).
- News 24 should always be simulcast during BBC Two's downtime until BBC One begins simulcasting (making BBC News 24 available to the widest audience possible overnight).
- Any remaining BBC Two downtime should be filled with Pages from Ceefax (I think there's some sort of policy which prevents BBC One and Two simulcasting except in times of national significance?)

Of course, post-switchover it all seems pretty irrelevant and BBC One and Two should just close down when they run out of programming, perhaps leaving up a card advertising the News Channel and iPlayer. Of course, this would highlight how poor both channels late-night offering is; 1am closes are too early.

I'm not sure whether this would legally work but if they were to do something like this, wouldn't it be better to offer BBC World News? At least it would be offering something different to what you can already access on News 24.

I think that would confuse more than anything.

Surely pages from Ceefax only has 18 months or so to go.


It doesn't even have to be educational shows in the traditional sense - most Open University shows now are populist prime time fair, which could easily be rebroadcast during the day under a banner which flags up their educational value.

Like BBC Knowledges old daytime schedule?