(11-07-2022, 07:01 PM)itsrobert Wrote: Therefore, my feeling is - as a British citizen - that I would expect the BBC to prioritise serving my needs over and above the overseas audience. Like I said, an international channel is a luxury. If the new BBC News channel focuses too heavily on international affairs and starts treating me like an idiot by explaining who the Chancellor of the Exchequer is, then I will be tuning out and over to Sky News as I have been doing more and more since the simulcasting started. They're effectively losing the casual UK audience by going down that route (and I guess the overseas audience if they focus too much on UK affairs).
But this is basically my point. A wholly merged channel is a bad idea in the first place, but it is going ahead. That gives them three options - an international-focussed channel that might lose some UK viewers, a UK-focussed channel that will lose global viewers or some crappy compromise that serves nobody and will, in the long run, alienate both audiences. My view is that, as BBC World News brings in additional money for the whole of BBC News, it is preferable to keep the global audience at the expense of the UK audience. While Newswatch may get some whiny letters, losing that audience would almost certainly mean more cuts to BBC News. It is therefore in the best interests of the whole department to go down the international route (though I actually think they'll go down the compromise route).
It's also the case that this all might end up a moot point - we really have to see how frequent the alleged opt-outs are. I remain sceptical that they will be anything but rare, but it should be noted that most of the drama from last week would be covered in depth on even the most international focussed BBC News channel. It's when you get to second-tier UK politics stories - like the day-to-day of the Conservative leadership contest - that there is little justification for more than a short story on a UK-based international news channel.
At the end of the day, I'd rather see the news channel lose viewers to Sky than see Newsnight axed and millions of English-speaking international viewers in Africa and Asia lose one of their few, if only, trustworthy TV news sources.