News Broadcasting
BBC Four intends to become global subscription service
MUMBAI: The BBC is mulling over transforming BBC Four into a global subscription service in view of the ongoing economic adversity caused by the Covid2019 pandemic.
“Outside the UK, we are exploring potential commercial opportunities for BBC Four to become a new global subscription service that takes our strengths in specialist factual to the world stage,” says the 76-page BBC annual plan 2020/21 released on Wednesday.
Signed by chairman David Clementi and director-general Tony Hall, the document says that BBC Four will focus on bringing together collections of the most distinctive content from the BBC’s rich archive. “Arts will continue to be a centrepiece of Four as we carry on showcasing Culture in Quarantine through this period.”
BBC Four intends to broadcast at least 60 hours of factual originated programmes (subject to the impact of Covid2019 on production delivery).
Generational shift
In news, BBC is making a generational shift in what news it covers and how it covers it by putting the audience at the heart of decisions. Its last major transformation in news was 25 years ago when the broadcaster introduced 24-hour rolling news and took the first steps in online news.
“Today, audiences watch less broadcast news and rely more on online services, particularly on mobile. Reflecting this shift, we will move to a ‘story-led’ approach in news – putting the audience at the heart of decisions on what stories we cover and how we cover them. We will select stories not according to what is required for a specific programme, channel or platform, but instead with the needs of all our audiences and platforms in mind,” says the document.
The idea is to maximise the value of the BBC’s news output by using the power of its portfolio to its fullest. “We want to serve audiences with compelling journalism that is engaging, useful and at a time and in a format of their choosing.”
It stresses the need to discover new ways of “storytelling across our digital platforms, including iPlayer and Sounds, to connect with all audiences that use BBC content. We want our best journalism to travel further so that the quality, breadth and accuracy of BBC News can reach more people, more regularly, in more ways.”
The document says that BBC’s new approach to digital storytelling will power the modernisation of the BBC News online offer and news app. Later this year the app will be completely refreshed and rebuilt from the ground up. This will focus on making it more useful and more used, aimed at the mobile generation under 35. “We build on our existing highly successful news app, but made better for a new generation with new ways of navigating in a mobile and always connected world. In an endless sea of mobile offers and user-friendly aggregators like Apple News and Facebook News, BBC News needs to be as intuitive and easy to use than other news providers, and to have a better editorial offer than anybody else. We want the app to be the best place to consume BBC news.”
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
