BBC to "cut number of programmes it makes" according to Davie

[telebox2001]

Turning BBC Two into BBC News in daytime is a daft idea, what happens to coverage of Wimbledon and Snooker as it can't all go to BBC One.

Well, as I said, you hit a bit of a problem for the few weeks a year that Wimbledon or Snooker is on. But in those cases you could easily drop an afternoon of rolling news if there are no major stories on. During an afternoon Snooker slot, that typically lasts from 13:00-17:15, you could have a short news update at 14:00 and 16:00 and a longer update or short bulletin at 15:00. It might be a departure from the rolling news we currently have, but it isn't dissimilar to what happened in the 90s with the hourly news summaries. If there are big stories, then the BBC would have to make a decision which should take priority - as they did before News 24.

Before you say 'but it isn't the 90s', well obviously. But what is being outlined is the BBC effectively returning to pre-digital levels of original content production. There is no need for the BBC to have post-digital levels of channels if they aren't going to produce enough content to fill them. At no point did I say this is what they should do, I merely suggested it as a radical possible solution to the problems facing BBC Two. Let's face it, ten years ago you and I would have said it was daft to simulcast 3 1/4 hours of BBC News on BBC Two during the morning, but here we are.

Whilst this is quite an interesting idea, it's not inconceivable.  Wimbledon overspill isn't the issue it once was: there's now iPlayer.

Afternoon snooker, realistically, could go on BBC One.  The vast majority of the daytime lineup even on One is fairly expendable.

Of course, Two's real problem IMHO is Three and Four have taken away significant chunks of their traditional "alternative" remit, and as a result has diminished the amount of new material available to air on the network.