{"id":21376,"date":"2022-09-04T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2022-09-04T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1700691"},"modified":"2022-09-04T10:31:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-04T08:31:26","slug":"should-the-bbc-merge-its-two-news-channels","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/should-the-bbc-merge-its-two-news-channels\/","title":{"rendered":"Should the BBC merge its two news channels?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Roger Mosey\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 04 September 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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This article was originally published in Radio Times magazine<\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n

The BBC News Channel \u2013 born a quarter of a century ago as BBC News 24 \u2013 is the most successful of the UK\u2019s continuous TV news operations. While a lot of noise has been made by newcomers GB News<\/a> and TalkTV<\/a>, whose monthly audience hovers around two million, the BBC is way ahead with 12 million viewers \u2013 comfortably beating its longer-established competitor Sky News, too.<\/p>\n

But change is afoot. For at least two decades, the corporation\u2019s bean counters have had murderous intentions because the domestic channel runs in parallel with the commercially funded BBC World News \u2013 the international TV service. The question has been raised repeatedly: why can\u2019t there be just one channel, thus halving the resources and getting rid of duplicate studios, presenters and producers?<\/p>\n

If the answer were simple, the merger would have happened by now. But it\u2019s not, because the two channels serve different purposes. One is for the UK and one is for global viewers \u2013 and they don\u2019t want the same thing. Gas bills are big news here, but don\u2019t matter in Singapore; and political crises in Washington will preoccupy viewers in America yet prompt yawns in Warrington.<\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s financial crisis<\/a> means it\u2019ll now go for a solution it repeatedly rejected with a round-the-clock merger, and its staff are adamant this involves effectively closing the BBC News Channel. \u201cI am just so angry,\u201d says one journalist, while another talks of the \u201ctotal demoralisation\u201d of the newsroom. Job losses are inevitable, and strike action is being considered. The fear is that a service tailored for Britain will be replaced by the bland fare burbling away in international hotel rooms, including lots of half-hour shows to attract sponsorship from global businesses.<\/p>\n

What will be lost are stories from the UK that would never make an item on World News \u2013 the tales from the nations and regions, the scrutiny of Parliament and devolved institutions and live coverage of events as they develop. The BBC management\u2019s response is that it will retain the option of splitting off a domestic service when merited, but staff claim that there is no guidance on how often this might happen: will it be once a day or once a month? Even supporters of the idea acknowledge that getting a professional TV operation running at short notice is tricky.<\/p>\n

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