BBC News and BBC World to merge

[PATV Scunthorpe]

Studio F is the CSO studio used for The Catch Up on BBC Three

[NickyS]

Which is Studio F? Apparently they’re using that for UK Breaking News.

The studio that is used for the Catch Up on BBC Three and old 60seconds

[Ash101]

Is there anything to suggest they won't air Breakfast till 9am and then Nicky Campbell till 11am?

They already don't show the last 15 minutes of Breakfast on the News Channel (as it shows what is also on BBC Two).

[Markymark]

This surely cannot be allowed to happen-you surely can't run a News Channel on just 5 presenters.

5 UK presenters, so only on during 'daytime' in the UK.

[GraemeT]

So what, 11am-10pm?

Two presenters a day?

[DTV]

Jake Kanter has tweeted that there be just 5 presenters based in London:

This is scary and explains why Martine is so vocal about it all on Twitter. Those 5 will probably mostly be World faces, Yalda, Matthew A, Ross A and maybe 2 News channel people but I have no idea who they could be.

The actual tweet suggests five sole presenters and eight presenter-reporters. I imagine that Ros Atkins, as Analysis Editor, would come under the latter. Yalda Hakim would also fit that category, though she might be better suited to just being a reporter - always odd to give her a studio based programme considering how often she is in the field, especially after they tried to do the same with Lyse Doucet in 2010 and that fell apart.

One side effect of the changes, though, seems to be the disentanglement of the News at One and weekend bulletins from the News channel (in that, while likely still simulcast, they will not be on World (and thus probably from B)). I wouldn't be surprised if the News at One presenter gets merged with duty 'UK breaking news opt' presenter, which could save one or two NC faces.

[NewsGuy]

So are they seriously suggesting that 13 out of these presenters will go? These seem to be the 18 presenters they are referring to based on a fag packet calculation.

News

Annita McVeigh
Ben Brown
Joanna Gosling
Martine Croxall
Victoria Derbyshire
Jane Hill
Shaun Ley

World

Sally Bundock
Karin Giannone
Lucy Hockings
Yalda Hakim
Matthew Amroliwala
Tim Willcox
Kasia Madera
David Eades
Maryam Moshiri
Christian Fraser
Ros Atkins

EDIT: DTV's reply above does make sense, I guess we'll be seeing more "Editor" appointments coming soon.

[Teilifís]

Jake Kanter has tweeted that there be just 5 presenters based in London:

https://twitter.com/jake_kanter/status/1...YKmEdKgO2g

Is it a possibility that some of the usual substitute presenters of the likes of the 6 and 10 might end up being among the five? Jane Hill, Clive Myrie, Ben Brown spring to mind. Obviously this is all down to the business going on in the newsroom with regards staff changes (will some take a package, will some redeploy etc.)

[News48]

This surely cannot be allowed to happen-you surely can't run a News Channel on just 5 presenters.

5 UK presenters, so only on during 'daytime' in the UK.

Still doesn't make a blind bit of sense-you need more than 5 to run a news channel as far as i'm concerned.

[itsrobert]

Well, BBC News, it was nice knowing you. I've been watching more and more of Sky News in recent years and that's where my attention will be going with these changes.

[Markymark]

5 UK presenters, so only on during 'daytime' in the UK.

Still doesn't make a blind bit of sense-you need more than 5 to run a news channel as far as i'm concerned.

Maybe, maybe not. How many Al Jazz International UK based presenters are there ? (I genuinely don't know the answer)

[neonemesis]

Let's not be over-dramatic. There always seems to be this assumption that 'the people in charge' don't know what they're doing and only us out in the real world can see it.

Savings need to be made. People are expensive. Creative solutions need to be found. The BBC is the best in the world to figure them out.

While I don't support the move, and I think it will minimise the BBC's impact at home and internationally, the BBC has very little choice. I trust that given the circumstances they find themselves in, they will do the best job they can.

[Mr Q]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/b...ch-in-2023

This all sounds pretty sensible and hard to object to. It'll be a world news channel with opt-outs for UK viewers -- eg. for domestic breaking news, and also (some?) sports bulletins. Reading between the lines, I expect at least some of the UK breaking news will be handled by crossing to Five Live, with radio studios set up for TV. The upshot is less duplication of effort/resources across the BBC.

While there's talk of a new channel here, I think viewers will see much the same as what they do today -- with UK viewers getting more radio simulcasts. The bigger change looks to be structural/organisational (eg. the breaking news unit), with perhaps a greater focus on online delivery over linear TV.

In terms of how the consultations play out, it wouldn't surprise me if the end result is more London-based than proposed -- it's hardly popular from an industrial relations perspective to cut positions in the UK, only to hire more people in Washington. I can see that being a place to give ground, while the broad thrust of the changes is retained.

[Joe]

Somehow we have to try-Just on health & safety grounds (i.e if someone is off ill) the alarm bells on this should be ringing.

Thanks for giving me a laugh this evening, one of the funniest posts I’ve read in a long time!

[Radio_man]

So there will be opt outs for major UK breaking news stories? Does anyone believe that will happen?

We've had over a week of major political news in the UK, that is of interest to World viewers but does not warrant wall-to-wall rolling coverage on World, yet for most of the last week, World has been in simulcast with the News Channel. Even in the evenings, World and the NC have been in simulcast with Ros Atkins anchoring rolling coverage from Downing Street or Westminster, when really World and the NC should have been separate. Rolling coverage of the intricacies and machinations of internal Conservative party politics, with comment and analysis, has not been suitable for World viewers, yet every evening for the last 9 days, that's what World viewers have got.

So if the two channels won't go their separate ways now during simulcast hours, when they are still two separate channels, what confidence is there that they will separate when they are one single channel?

So under this new channel, we'll get Chris Mason or Ros Atkins reporting live from Downing St on their mobile phones mounted on a tripod?
And what's the obsession with broadcasting radio shows on TV? Nicky Campbell's 5 Live phone-in is for people to phone in with their opinions on a subject. It's not a rolling news show. What's going to happen in the situation from the last week? Nicky Campbell hosting a phone-in live from college green in Westminster with protestors drowning him out?

Just close the NC, and re-broadcast World in the UK without ad breaks.