to have almost disappeared, although there's been no announcement to that effect. viewer chris sharman was already telling us a few weeks ago. "it really feels like this controversial scheme is being snuck under the radar." and on monday, julian bray was surprised to observe, "we seem to have bbc world service output on the domestic "bbc news channel discussing the bangladesh fire. "clearly not enough uk news around?" later in the week after watching some of the output, rick from manchester wondered, "will the news channel be aimed for the uk or american viewers? this is my concern with the merger. as a uk licence fee payer, please focus on the uk market. american viewers do not pay for content. we do." we asked again for someone from the bbc to talk to about the new channel, but our request was declined. instead, they gave us this statement.

"as part of the transition to the single news channel operation we are making some necessary operational changes. there is nowjoint output across bbc news and bbc world as we work to a phased launch of the new channel in the spring. we will continue to deliver the best bbcjournalism to audiences in the uk and around the world across all our platforms." well, instead, we're delighted to talk about this issue to richard eyre, who's a former controller of editorial policy, former deputy chief executive of bbc news. he's also been a member of the bbc trust and of the ofcom content board. welcome to newswatch, richard. now there used to be two bbc news channels. now there's essentially one with the uk opt outs, is that right? that's right. let me give you a health warning first. i haven't spoken to anybody in the bbc about this. i'm as clueless as maybe some of the staff are about what the new channel will look like when it's launched in about four weeks�* time, i think. but you can get a pretty good sense

of it already because much of the change has already happened. and if you turn on — it's not quite true, as some of your viewers have suggested, that there's no longer a domestic bulletin. in fact, if you turn on not at the hour, but at the half hour, you'll find that the second half hour. the back half hour. the back half hour, that's technical lingo. the back half hour is domestic news because that's not being broadcast around the world. and the rest of the world will see documentaries, pre—filmed programmes for the back half hour. so it's the first half hour of the programme, which is now going to be a mixture of international and uk news, but frankly mostly international news. and the good thing about that is that it would give us a better service of international world news than the bbc has been able to provide for quite a long time. we'll see stories and people and correspondents from south

america, from africa, from parts of asia, other than china. part of the world that we hardly ever see on the domestic news bulletins or even on the existing bbc domestic news channel. is this the right solution to what's clearly a money problem? well, it's clearly a financial problem that has driven these changes. and that's no surprise because by this time next year, if you look back over 13 years, the bbc�*s licence fee has been frozen by successive governments on nine of those 13 years. so the bbc�*s income is falling and falling in real terms. so of course it's one of the measures the bbc is taking to try to eke out licence fee payers money. having said that, it's a change which i think would have come and actually, should come anyway because the world has changed. i was one of the bosses around

here when we launched news 2a, as it then was in 1997, nobody had hardly anybody had a mobile phone, nobody had invented a smartphone. there were no news apps. look at what's happening today. with all respect, people do not turn on the news channel or sit in front of it hour after hour, hoping to catch breaking news. because even people of my age, 25% of us get our breaking news from news apps on our mobile phones. so if one of the issues is people get their news primarily online, is there any need for a news channel at all? well, no, they don't get it primarily online, but they get it regularly online. when there's a really big breaking news the majority about it through their mobile phones and then what do they do? they turn on the television. and on those occasions, the audience to the news channel goes up from hundreds of

thousands to millions. one of the concerns of that political discourse in the uk has got so toxic now, social media has had a big effect. it feels to many like it's the worst time for the bbc to give up a dedicated uk news channel presence. won't people go to sky or to gb news or talk radio, if that's the only place they can get proper continuous news conversation about stuff that's going on in the uk. well, if you watch the bbc news channel, domestic channel over the last year it's been overwhelmingly domestic news on a cycle churned around every 15 minutes and very little world news other than big breaking stories, most obviously in ukraine. the bbc has been in danger, in my personal view, over the last decade of reporting less and less foreign news unless it involves wars or british interest abroad. the british people will,

after next month, be confident that if they turn on the news channel for the first half hour, they will get the biggest uk stories, but they'll also get stories from around the world. and i turned on yesterday and i saw coverage of georgia and this really important struggle which is going on between those who are pro—russian in georgia. those who want to become eventually part of the european union. i saw something like a six minute report, including live coverage. it was tremendous. and the new channel should bring us stories like that. richard eyre, thank you so much. the bbc celebrated 100 years in scotland this week with the anniversary on monday of the first broadcast from glasgow. the following night, alan little looked back on those early days. at the start, the audience was local and so was the content, bagpipes,

scottish speech and song glasgow talking to glasgow. but soon london would exert control over what it called its provincial stations, even determining what kind of voices were acceptable on scotland's airwaves. this is bbc television from scotland. that perception of london calling the shots persists to this day among some people, although the news at six and news at ten were broadcast from glasgow on tuesday to mark the anniversary. and although the bulletins featured contributors such as scotland editor james cook, helen mcclelland wanted to see more home—grown talent on display. why have sophie raworth is presenter? could it not have been sally magnusson or laura miller? "i feel that would have been a better way of marking the anniversary." phil campbell agreed. "what an insult and snub to bbc scotland staff to transport a newsreaderfrom london to glasgow to present the programme. are the management telling us that bbc scotland staff are not capable of reading from an autocue?"

finally, we featured last week a viewer's opinion that a bbc report on the border checks for goods coming into northern ireland was condescending because emma vardy held up a packet of sausages and a parcel while talking about, well, sausages and parcels. another viewer called, matt, took issue with that critic asking what does he expect emma to be doing when presenting her piece to camera? "just be stood there twiddling their thumbs? more importantly, different people consume information in different ways, so the visual images can help some people focus on the message, creating greater impact. " "then there's audiences who may be partially listening to the broadcast due to other distractions from normal day—to—day life." emma vardy has self contributed to the debate online tweeting. "i was just doing my weekly shop." "a girl's got to find time somewhere." thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, on tv, radio, online and social media email newswatch at bbc.co.uk or you can find us

on twitter at newswatchbbc. you can call us on 0370106676. do you have a look at previous interviews on our website bbc.co.uk newswatch. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello there. let's take a look at the weather for the week ahead. some truly atrocious weather conditions early on friday morning, but it turned into quite a pretty day of weather with a lot of blue sky and sunshine developing, as you can see from our weather watcher pictures, northern ireland and from northern england, but still a lot of lying snow around. now, our weather system, the deep area of low pressure that gave us all of that snow, is now pushing off, it's spiralling off into the near continent. the winds are lightening behind, so on friday night into saturday, it's likely to be bitterly cold with icy stretches from

the midlands northwards. temperatures where we have the lying snow could drop as low as —10 to —12 celsius, a widespread frost into the start of that weekend away from the far south—west. so a cold start. it will be dry for most of us on saturday away from western coasts and there will be some more snow on saturday night for northern england and for scotland, and then it turns a lot milder on sunday. now, on saturday morning, in a bit more detail, then, here's our weather front approaching from the south—west. there will be some snow across the moors of devon and cornwall, perhaps, for a time. snow potentially to lower levels across parts of wales but mostly confined to the higher ground. snow too for the hills of northern ireland, approaching the north—west of england by the end of the day, but there will be some brightness further east, the cloud amounts will increase through the day. maybe one or two snow showers across the borders and the central belt of scotland. but then of course we've got our weather front moving eastwards and the air is still cold, so it's likely to turn to snow again across northern england and across scotland to lower levels for a time, before it comes

increasingly more confined to the higher ground. that's because we're tapping into some much milderfeeling air through the early hours of sunday, all tied in with this weather front that's going to be sweeping in from the west. now, a lot of this will be falling as rain, but still snow across northern scotland, the cold air hangs on for the northern isles too for much of the day and into the start of next week. but elsewhere, it will be falling as rain. it will turn wet and windy. temperatures all the way up into double figures this time, 10 to 13 celsius. there will be a lot of snow melt too into the start of next week, and this could possibly lead to some localised flooding, with more rain on top, just moving in on another front as we head through monday. so, wet and windy again. look at the temperatures, 12 or 13 degrees, but we've still got that cold air across much of northern scotland. and that cold air is making a return, because as we head throughout monday night, into tuesday, we've got more of a northerly wind developing. and there will be some snow showers just tracking down on that northerly wind as we head through the day on tuesday, across much of northern scotland, moving into northern england,

northern ireland and parts of wales as well. the further south and east you are, the more likely you are to stay dry on tuesday, but it's still going to be feeling cold with a drop of temperature and plenty of added wind—chill. so the cold air with us on tuesday, you can see that in the blue here, but the milder air in yellow is not too far away. and it will be moving through again on this weatherfront. we'll have another battleground situation between the cold air and the milder air towards the south—west. and of course, as all of this moisture hits the cold air, it's likely to turn to snow. there could be some more snow across wales, the northern part of england, from the midlands northwards, and across northern ireland, moving into scotland throughout the day on wednesday as that cold air hangs on. we will see the mild air make a return, certainly, as we head into the latter part of next week. the low pressure not too far away, so more atlantic systems spreading in spreading. it's likely to be wet and windy at times. do keep an eye on the forecast. there's still a lot of uncertainty.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the bbc�*s star football presenter, gary lineker, has been suspended over comments he made criticising the british government's asylum policy. britain will pay france hundreds of millions of dollars over the next three years for a new detention centre and more patrols to help clamp down on migrants crossing the channel in small boats. there's no one solution to solving this very complicated problem, and nor will it be solved overnight. my hope is that our new legislation will help. notjust france and uk have to work closely together in order precisely to dismantle these groups and to be more efficient. saudi arabia and iran have agreed to re—establish diplomatic ties seven years after riyadh's embassy in tehran was attacked