ARCHIVE: The TV Room
The 6am BBC One junction.
Video content
[00:00:00] IDENT: one of the standard BBC One idents – Welsh 2 – is used to link into BBC Breakfast.
[00:00:09] PROGRAMME: a compilation of presentation elements from an edition of BBC Breakfast, taking in: the main presenter area; news summaries; sports news; business news; weather.
The programme was relaunched a month earlier on 2nd October 2000. The new show was the first scheduled programme to air simultaneously on BBC One and BBC News 24, Monday to Friday.
The merging of the BBC News 24 and BBC One breakfast teams led to savings of £1.5m for the news division.
Although it went out five days a week on BBC One (6am – 9am, Monday -Friday), BBC Breakfast was a seven-day operation. It went out on BBC Two and BBC News 24 on Saturdays and BBC News 24 only on Sundays.
The programme running order reflected the different audiences that tuned in over the course of the show. The set even had a few different style areas corresponding to the separate sections of the programme.
The editor of the programme, Andrew Thompson, admitted that the programme’s predecessor, BBC Breakfast News, had its problems: “Viewers were never sure when news ended and features began. It felt a bit unstructured. We’re doing this [relaunch] in response to the way people now say they want their news. I think audiences are becoming more sophisticated.”
BBC Breakfast had six dedicated reporters, plus the use of Newsgathering’s correspondents. The deputy editor was Carey Clark. The team consisted of sixty staff, including administrators and managers.
The studio was shared with BBC Two’s Newsnight programme.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: BBC Breakfast opening titles. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
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