BBC NEWS 24
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BBC News 24 is BBC News' 24-hour news television channel in the UK, its international counterpart being BBC World. It first broadcast on November 9 1997 at 17:30 and at first only cable television subscribers could view the broadcast. In 1998, with the advent of digital television in the UK, satellite and digital terrestrial television viewers were able to view the service. Initially it was difficult to obtain a digital satellite or terrestrial receiver without a subscription to Sky or ONdigital respectively, but now the channel forms an important part of the Freeview package of channels.
Background
The BBC were initially criticised for the cost of running BBC News 24 channel, with so few viewers. Their response was to promote the channel through BBC One and later also BBC Two, by having them simulcast News 24 output at night. This has made BBC News 24 available to non-digital viewers receiving BBC One/Two's analogue terrestrial signals, and this is seen by some as influential (to a certain limited extent) in promoting the take-up of digital television. Following the end of the long running Breakfast with Frost, in the summer of 2005, BBC One simulcast News 24 Sunday, a weekly Sunday morning interview show presented by Peter Sissons. This ended when the replacement to Breakfast with Frost, Sunday AM presented by Andrew Marr began.Examples of News 24 network broadcasts include the September 11th attacks, the capture of Saddam Hussein and the London bombings of July 7th, 2005.
In September 1999 the European Commission ruled against a complaint by Sky News which argued that the publicly funded News 24 was unfair and illegal under EU law. The EC ruled that the licence fee should be considered state aid but that such aid was justified due to the public service remit of the BBC and that it did not exceed actual costs.
The BBC's 2004 [annual report] claims that News 24 outperformed Sky News in both weekly and monthly reach in multichannel homes for the January 2004 period, and for the first time in two years moved ahead of Sky News in being perceived as the channel best for news.
The channel's journalistic output had been controlled since its launch by an editor, similar to the main BBC One bulletins. On the 8th of November 2005, it was announced that a controller would be appointed for the channel in line with the BBC's other channels in the UK. A further part of the changes was for a single editor to work on the One O'Clock and Six O'Clock News rather than one for each bulletin, though the Ten O'Clock News was to retain an editor solely for that bulletin [link].
Kevin Bakhurst, then the editor of the Ten O'Clock News, was promoted on the 16th of December, 2005, to the new role of controller of News 24. This coincided with a further announcement that the channel was to receive more funding and resources under the recently appointed head of television news output, Peter Horrocks. His aim for BBC News to shift its emphasis from the traditional BBC One bulletins to the rolling news channel.He wanted the news bulletins to work alongside each other in the face of competition from the likes of Sky News rather than battling against each other with almost entirely the same news agendas at the key times.
The channel is broadcast from the News Centre in BBC Television Centre, West London. It is the only domestic BBC channel transmitted by the BBC itself, all others are handled by Red Bee Media, formerly BBC Broadcast.
Presentation
Initially, the channel was criticised for its style of presentation with accusations of it being less authoritative compared to news on BBC One since male presenters were seen on screen in shirts but no jackets. The bright design of the set, described by some derogatively as looking like 'a car crash in a shower', was also blamed for this and was subject to the largescale relaunch on October 25, 1999. A new set, music and titles were introduced, based on the recent new look of news on BBC One. Graphics and titles were developed by the Lambie-Nairn design agency and were gradually rolled out across the whole of BBC News, including a similar design for regional news starting with Newsroom South East. The similarity of main BBC News was intended to increase the credibility of the channel (male presenters donned jackets), while it also helped to aid cross channel promotion.
Then controller of BBC television news, Tim Orchard stated that the message with the new style was simple: "...you still have the TV news programmes from the BBC that you know and trust at set times of the day but it is happening all the time on this channel."
The Lambert Report into the channel's performance in 2002 called upon News 24 to develop a better brand of its own, to allow viewers to differentiate between itself and similar channels such as Sky News. As a direct result of this, a brand new style across all presentation for the channel launched on Monday the 8th of December 2003 at 0900. Philip Hayton and Anna Jones were the first two presenters on the set, the relaunch of which had been put back a week due to previous power disruptions at Television Centre where the channel is based. The new designs also featured a dynamic set of titles for the channel, where the main headline story for the hour could be entered into a ribbon circling the globe part of the titles, with others simply displaying lines of 'BBC NEWS'.
To direct a viewers attention to breaking news, a new breaking news sting was introduced which showed a globe briefly appear on screen. This was designed to counteract the claim by Lord Lambert that News 24 was slow to react to breaking news.
Subsequently, bulletins on BBC One were also updated to the new style, having moved into a new set in 2003 but retaining the ivory Lambie-Nairn titles. This led the titles for News 24 to be tweaked, with the globe changing to red from orange and the ribbons around it changed to a darker shade.
On 12 June 2006, Media Guardian suggested that the "24" may soon be dropped from the station name[link]. This was dispelled later by a senior BBC source who told news presentation collection website [TV Newsroom] that such a relaunch or any kind of change to the channel's on-screen appearance would not be happening 'anytime soon'.
Countdown
Since the October 1999 relaunch an important element of News 24 presentation has been the countdown to the top of every hour. The countdown is to show viewers the pace of the channel. The full version was 90 seconds, though approximately 30 seconds were normally shown. The original countdown featured ivory numbers and globe against a deep red background, reflecting the wider rebranding of the channel. The music was composed by David Lowe, responsible for the network news music.
In January 2003 this countdown was revised to show life around the UK; stockbrokers, playgrounds, commuters, hospitals and school lessons were all shown. With the December 2003 relaunch of the channel the music of the countdown was adapted for the first time and the footage was revised to include markets, fairgrounds and the newsroom and news centre at Television Centre.
On March 28, 2005 the countdown was radically altered. The full version is 60 seconds long, but they still normally show about 30 seconds on air. The music was again revised but the biggest change came in the footage used — it now reflects the methods and nature of newsgathering and strong emphasis is placed on the BBC logo itself. Satellites are shown transmitting and receiving a red "data stream". Footage shows reporters and cameramen operating in the United Kingdom, United States, China, Africa, Iraq and the areas affected by the Asian Tsunami. Some people have also noted that the red "data streams" represented on the BBC News 24 countdown appear to defy the laws of physics [link].
As of 5 September 2005, an almost identical countdown replaced the 'ribbon-around-the-world' countdown BBC World had thus far offered its viewers, with slight changes in music and footage. On May 16 2006 the music that accompanies the countdown was changed to a more mellow remixed version created by the original composer David Lowe, this version was later posted in full [link] on the BBC website. This was followed by a competition to produce a remix of the theme [link], several of which are now available on the site. As a result of the number of entries, some have been used, one every week, to lead into the Six O'Clock bulletin on fridays.
On June 5 2006 pictures taken by various BBC regions of houses and fans getting wrapped in the build up to the World Cup were added (these extra images have since been removed after England had been knocked out of the FIFA World Cup).
Programmes
News Programming
- BBC One O'Clock News (simulcast on BBC One)
- BBC One O'Clock Newshour
- BBC Six O'Clock News (simulcast on BBC One)
- BBC Six O'Clock Newshour
- BBC Ten O'Clock News (simulcast on BBC One)
- BBC Ten O'Clock Newshour
- Breakfast
- Five O'Clock News
- News 24 Tonight
- Sportsday
- World Business Report
- The World Today (simulcast produced by BBC World)
The main BBC One news bulletins have been simulcast together on the channel since the 10th of April, 2006. The Ten O'Clock News had been simulcast on the channel since 30th of January, 2006, followed on the channel by an extended sports bulletin and newspaper review. This has been the model for content following the other bulletins once the simulcasts end at the end of each programme.
From 01:00 UK time the channel simulcasts with its sister, BBC World for the first 25 minutes of each hour. Presenters during this period include Alastair Yates, Martine Croxall and Deborah Mackenzie. These half hour BBC News branded programmes are normally produced by BBC News 24 and presented from within the channel's studio. On other occasions such as during maintenance work in the News 24 studio, they are instead presented from the BBC World's studio. On the half hour there is normally a 'filler' programme of some kind, notably ABC's World News Tonight at 01:30. The World Today with a half hour edition of World Business Report is shown between 05:00 and 06:00 daily and is produced by BBC World.
Current Affairs and Miscellaneous Programming
- Click
- Dateline London
- Fast Track
- HARDtalk
- Head 2 Head
- The Record Europe
- Reporters
- Straight Talk
- Talking Movies
News Presenters
Some of the main presenters on the channel itself include Jon Sopel; Huw Edwards; Jane Hill, Kate Silverton, Matthew Amroliwala, Emily Maitlis, Ben Brown, Louise Minchin, Chris Eakin, Carrie Gracie, Peter Sissons, Maxine Mawhinney and Simon McCoy. Due to the main weekday BBC One news bulletins being simulcast with the channel, this has also led to Darren Jordan; Sophie Raworth; George Alagiah; Natasha Kaplinsky and Fiona Bruce also appearing on News 24 with their respective bulletins.Awards
On 22 February 2006, BBC News 24 won the News Channel of the Year at the RTS Television Journalism Awards for the first time in its history. The judges remarked that this was the year that BBC News 24 really came of age.Trivia
- In May 2006 Guy Goma, who was visiting the BBC for a job interview, was mistaken for Guy Kewney, editor of Newswireless.net and interviewed live on air.[BBC News 'wrong Guy' is revealed] by the BBC, created May 16 2006, accessed June 1 2006.
| BBC Television |
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UK analogue and digital channels BBC One | BBC Two BBC Two variants: BBC Two Northern Ireland |
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UK digital-only channels General Entertainment: BBC Three | BBC Four News and current affairs: BBC News 24 | BBC Parliament Children's television: CBBC Channel | CBeebies BBC Two Nations: BBC 2W | BBC Two NI Interactive Television: BBCi High Definition: BBC HD |
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International television BBC World | BBC America | BBC Prime BBC Kids | BBC Food | BBC Canada |
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Joint Ventures Animal Planet | People+Arts | UKTV (UK and Ireland) | UK.TV (Australia and New Zealand) |
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Defunct channels BBC Knowledge | BBC Choice | BBC World Service Television | BBC TV Europe | BBC Japan |
References
External links
- [BBC News] website
- [The Lambert Report] on the DCMS website
- [MP3 tracks of News 24 music: 1997, 1999 and 2003] - See the David Lowe article for more.
- [TV Newsroom]
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