Delivering Quality First

I apologise, I misread your post, and thought you were suggesting that Newsbeat and 60 Seconds be axed.

Ah, reading again I see how you came to that conclusion - I've edited that post to clarify it now.

Nah, despite the idents being shot in HD, expect SD upscaled versions of the current BBC2 set, of which 3 will be withdrawn and the remaining amended with this updated box moved to a different part of the screen, my guess: dead centre.

Tiresome sarcasm aside, it would be the perfect opportunity for a badly needed presentation overhaul, hopefully adopting an evolution of BBC HD's style guide.

As I explained earlier it will probably save money by freeing the post of the person who needs to produce it, therefore one fewer person on the rota.


I don't think so, it did move from 2 to 1 though

The 3pm bulletin did disappear a few times actually. It went for several months when some New Zealand or Australian drama series was bought in and there wasn't room in the schedule for it. I can't remember what the series was but it was universally panned and eventually was replaced with Diagnosis Murder or Murder She Wrote or something and it crept back. It's always disappeared during Wimbledon fortnight as long as its been on BBC One. This year, it didn't initially return post-Wimbledon because they were running a double-bill of Only Fools and Horses.

Originally it was indeed on BBC Two though and moved around the schedule a few times. For a long time it settled at around 3.25pm.

They won't have to have dedicated 'online streams' where it'll go from concerts to sport to whatever else like the red button, it'll just be video on each website. The other courts at Wimbledon are always online on the BBC Sport website now anyway, it's just a case of closing down the red button to save on transponder costs.

With regards to the other sports, they should be on BBC Two, to buy rights and then tuck them away on a poorly-promoted interactive service is a waste of money. If they consider it too niche to be on one of the main channels then leave it to Eurosport and simply don't buy the rights.



For what purpose though? This is about saving money, a rebrand of 60 Seconds to Newsbeat would be spending money on something that is perfectly fine already.

That box has the wrong font for the TWO.

Yep, the joke being that BBC Two constantly get it wrong on air at the moment, often using the above (sans HD) by mistake.

The majority of that post was in jest, also.

lol, I guessed the dead centre thing was a joke - works well when it's all on one line like the 1997 idents, not so well for a box. I just didn't realize that the wrong font was also deliberately a joke.

Anyway, it probably won't matter, as the massive schedule revamp due to BBC One and BBC Two would justify new idents. If the changes are a year or two away, the current idents will be 6 years old by then. Also, the end of BBC HD as a separate channel means that they may decide to ditch the diamond HD logo. Just putting it in Gill Sans would look better on the other channel idents (as long as the BBC corporate logo isn't changed).

Match of the Day is particularly guilty of this if I remember correctly.

I'm not really going to miss the Red Button stuff. Its cost is disproportionate to the amount which I'd expect make regular use of it. Perhaps the BBC could look in to leasing time from another broadcaster to get Wimbledon red button on air?

Similarly, losing Children's BBC content from BBC One and Two makes sense now - so long as that doesn't come with a stealthy budget cut (do BBC One/Two budgets still contribute to 'Childrens'?).

The biggest question mark for me is Two/Three/Four. I don't think there's much of any Public Service value on BBC Three (certainly I'd expect to see them outbid on their import content when it's up for renewal) but then perhaps that's easy for somebody with a brain to say. Crucially though, Three and Four have pretty much annexed off most of Two's remit for existing.

How can you sort that out without causing a PR disaster? I don't know.

Sell off BBC Three? Most of its content is stuff that the commercial broadcasters would take and I expect it'd be quite easy to make it profitable without 60 seconds and what-not.

Close Three and Four, move the content to BBC Two and reinstate BBC Choice (with a daytime schedule) to show repeats and 'flipside' content? I think this is possibly the way forward.

I know this is all academic for the time being but I think it's going to have to be addressed at some point.

A lot of the stuff shown on BBC Four could quite easily fit in on BBC Two. BBC Three is different though, as it has a target audience that isn't really covered fully by either BBC One or BBC Two.