BBC News and BBC World to merge

[ginnyfan]

There's enough minutes in an hour for a channel to cover news from the UK and all over the world. I really don't see the big deal if sometimes a UK story will dominate and at other times something else. As we've seen in recent years, the news agenda has been very international and similar, everywhere.

I will miss the name BBC World.

[London Lite]

I would have thought Breakfast would stay on the UK opt of BBC News purely for the sign language simulcast. This may mean World would continue with news from C or a standard feed of Breakfast, despite it being UK centric.

[News48]

With BBC Four SD and CBBC SD & HD closing, that could potentially mean that capacity is made available for BBC News HD to move from Com7 on Freeview to the BBC PSB mux when Com7 closes in July.

That would be my guess as to what will happen.

CBBC is not closing until 2025.

Yes and it has to be approved by Ofcom first before it can be closed, you never know Ofcom might reject the proposals.

I don't think that they will reject this......bear in mind that Ofcom approved BBC Three's closure back in 2016, the BBC Scotland channel's opening in 2019 and BBC Three's return in 2022. Ofcom has always approved what the BBC decided to do

Well there's a first time for everything as the saying goes.

[Roger Darthwell]

With BBC Four SD and CBBC SD & HD closing, that could potentially mean that capacity is made available for BBC News HD to move from Com7 on Freeview to the BBC PSB mux when Com7 closes in July.

That would be my guess as to what will happen.

CBBC is not closing until 2025.

Yes and it has to be approved by Ofcom first before it can be closed, you never know Ofcom might reject the proposals.

I don't think that they will reject this......bear in mind that Ofcom approved BBC Three's closure back in 2016, the BBC Scotland channel's opening in 2019 and BBC Three's return in 2022. Ofcom has always approved what the BBC decided to do

Well there's a first time for everything as the saying goes.

Indeed let's see what happens

[BBCMeridian]

There's enough minutes in an hour for a channel to cover news from the UK and all over the world. I really don't see the big deal if sometimes a UK story will dominate and at other times something else. As we've seen in recent years, the news agenda has been very international and similar, everywhere.

I will miss the name BBC World.

But the problem is the BBC News Channel report on a breaking story at home in the UK and a global breaking story at the same time, I'm sorry but I disagree with you on the points you made and I just hope Ofcom rejects these proposals.

[Inspector Sands]

With BBC Four SD and CBBC SD & HD closing, that could potentially mean that capacity is made available for BBC News HD to move from Com7 on Freeview to the BBC PSB mux when Com7 closes in July.

That would be my guess as to what will happen.

That's going to have to happen in the next month anyway. BBC4 and CBBC closing won't happen that soon. 

The closure of Oxford and Cambridge is by November so that will make the changes to the HD Mux easier

[BBCMeridian]

With BBC Four SD and CBBC SD & HD closing, that could potentially mean that capacity is made available for BBC News HD to move from Com7 on Freeview to the BBC PSB mux when Com7 closes in July.

That would be my guess as to what will happen.

CBBC is not closing until 2025.

Yes and it has to be approved by Ofcom first before it can be closed, you never know Ofcom might reject the proposals.

I don't think that they will reject this......bear in mind that Ofcom approved BBC Three's closure back in 2016, the BBC Scotland channel's opening in 2019 and BBC Three's return in 2022. Ofcom has always approved what the BBC decided to do

Erm it was the BBC Trust that approved the closure of BBC Three, not Ofcom.

[DTV]

As we've seen in recent years, the news agenda has been very international and similar, everywhere.

Sure with something like the Ukraine crisis, but that's a rare event. My go to example is always storms. For many parts of the world, UK storms look frankly pathetic - particularly considering that some of the BBC's key international markets are the Indian subcontinent (which gets monsoons), the US (which gets hurricanes and deadly tornados) and East Asia (which get typhoons). Sometimes the UK's bad weather events are happening at the same time as these more serious bad weather events. In that circumstance, if the BBC give UK weather the level of coverage that UK viewers want, it looks insane to international viewers (and potentially alienates them). If the BBC give UK weather stories the level of coverage that would be proportionate for an international news channel, they get complaints from UK viewers - to whom they are more directly accountable.

UK politics is the other big issue. Sure, many international viewers expect the BBC to give greater coverage of UK political events than CNN etc. But just take this week. Yesterday there was wall-to-wall coverage of the partygate issue. While it is a story of interest to people interested in UK politics overseas, it would be absurd to let it dominate the entire day of an international news channel. The Chancellor's announcement today, however, is of virtually no interest to anybody outside the UK, but of high importance to UK viewers. Again there is a clear conflict between what is appropriate for UK and international viewers.

While they have pledged to 'opt-out' when appropriate, we all know that isn't going to really happen more than once or twice a year. And these days of clear news agenda conflict aren't particularly rare. So what it will lead to is either a news channel that is too UK-heavy for international audiences, too international-heavy for UK audiences or is some crappy compromise that doesn't really work for either audience.

[BBCMeridian]

As we've seen in recent years, the news agenda has been very international and similar, everywhere.

Sure with something like the Ukraine crisis, but that's a rare event. My go to example is always storms. For many parts of the world, UK storms look frankly pathetic - particularly considering that some of the BBC's key international markets are the Indian subcontinent (which gets monsoons), the US (which gets hurricanes and deadly tornados) and East Asia (which get typhoons). Sometimes the UK's bad weather events are happening at the same time as these more serious bad weather events. In that circumstance, if the BBC give UK weather the level of coverage that UK viewers want, it looks insane to international viewers (and potentially alienates them). If the BBC give UK weather stories the level of coverage that would be proportionate for an international news channel, they get complaints from UK viewers - to whom they are more directly accountable.

UK politics is the other big issue. Sure, many international viewers expect the BBC to give greater coverage of UK political events than CNN etc. But just take this week. Yesterday there was wall-to-wall coverage of the partygate issue. While it is a story of interest to people interested in UK politics overseas, it would be absurd to let it dominate the entire day of an international news channel. The Chancellor's announcement today, however, is of virtually no interest to anybody outside the UK, but of high importance to UK viewers. Again there is a clear conflict between what is appropriate for UK and international viewers.

While they have pledged to 'opt-out' when appropriate, we all know that isn't going to really happen more than once or twice a year. And these days of clear news agenda conflict aren't particularly rare. So what it will lead to is either a news channel that is too UK-heavy for international audiences, too international-heavy for UK audiences or is some crappy compromise that doesn't really work for either audience.

I agree, absolutely that's why we have to hope that Ofcom will reject this proposal.

[all new Phil]

As we've seen in recent years, the news agenda has been very international and similar, everywhere.

Sure with something like the Ukraine crisis, but that's a rare event. My go to example is always storms. For many parts of the world, UK storms look frankly pathetic - particularly considering that some of the BBC's key international markets are the Indian subcontinent (which gets monsoons), the US (which gets hurricanes and deadly tornados) and East Asia (which get typhoons). Sometimes the UK's bad weather events are happening at the same time as these more serious bad weather events. In that circumstance, if the BBC give UK weather the level of coverage that UK viewers want, it looks insane to international viewers (and potentially alienates them). If the BBC give UK weather stories the level of coverage that would be proportionate for an international news channel, they get complaints from UK viewers - to whom they are more directly accountable.

UK politics is the other big issue. Sure, many international viewers expect the BBC to give greater coverage of UK political events than CNN etc. But just take this week. Yesterday there was wall-to-wall coverage of the partygate issue. While it is a story of interest to people interested in UK politics overseas, it would be absurd to let it dominate the entire day of an international news channel. The Chancellor's announcement today, however, is of virtually no interest to anybody outside the UK, but of high importance to UK viewers. Again there is a clear conflict between what is appropriate for UK and international viewers.

While they have pledged to 'opt-out' when appropriate, we all know that isn't going to really happen more than once or twice a year. And these days of clear news agenda conflict aren't particularly rare. So what it will lead to is either a news channel that is too UK-heavy for international audiences, too international-heavy for UK audiences or is some crappy compromise that doesn't really work for either audience.

I agree, absolutely that's why we have to hope that Ofcom will reject this proposal.

Yeah you mentioned that.

[AaronTV]

I’m sure the brightest and best talent in news (both on and off camera) will be able to make this work absolutely fine. Presumably they’ve already modelled merging them and now they might look.

[Inspector Sands]

The full transcript of Tim Davies speech

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/speech...-tim-davie


The specific bit about the News Channel is....

We have already brought the editorial leadership of the News Channel in the UK and international World News together, so that live and breaking news happens in a single integrated model across digital, streaming and broadcast. Now we propose to go further and create output around a single TV channel called BBC News. We know there are stories which are key to UK audiences, but less relevant elsewhere, and vice versa – so not everything will be simulcast. However, there will be much more shared output and a fully co-ordinated approach. And we want to break new ground by creating output that can be simulcast on audio and video services.

[BBCMeridian]

The full transcript of Tim Davies speech

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/speech...-tim-davie


The specific bit about the News Channel is....

We have already brought the editorial leadership of the News Channel in the UK and international World News together, so that live and breaking news happens in a single integrated model across digital, streaming and broadcast. Now we propose to go further and create output around a single TV channel called BBC News. We know there are stories which are key to UK audiences, but less relevant elsewhere, and vice versa – so not everything will be simulcast. However, there will be much more shared output and a fully co-ordinated approach. And we want to break new ground by creating output that can be simulcast on audio and video services.

Well if that's the case then the news presenters should say at the start of the hour, good afternoon if you're watching in the UK and welcome wherever you're watching.

[Markymark]

With BBC Four SD and CBBC SD & HD closing, that could potentially mean that capacity is made available for BBC News HD to move from Com7 on Freeview to the BBC PSB mux when Com7 closes in July.

That would be my guess as to what will happen.

The decision whether or not to find a new home for BBC 4 HD on DTT will have been made months ago.

We still don't know the outcome of that decision of course, but it won't have been affected by today's announcement, BBC 4 as a linear channel still has a few years to run

[Mouseboy33]

Well there is a brightside to this merger. Maybe....just maybe they will create a COMPLETELY new look. So tired of the current presentation. So boring. But im not optimistic at alll for any thing remotely currently and fresh though.

Seriously this merger was going to happen sooner or later with the funding changing soon. Also if a major uk domestic story needs to be covered, they can still opt out the UK from the main channel and do rolling domestic coverage. The sky isnt falling. Its gonna be ok. LOL Reminds me of CNNi in reverse. Possibly with a better schedule. We shall see.