hello and welcome to newswatch with me samira ahmed. with the new single channel for both domestic and international audiences are uk viewers getting a new service that meets their needs? and is the tv news channel the right place for a radio phone in show for 2 hours every weekday? it's 12 weeks since the bbc�*s two news channels became one single operation, so time to take stock of the new service, which we'll be doing throughout this programme with its boss, paul royle. at some times of the day, uk viewers see a separate, dedicated feed. for example, between nine and 11 every weekday morning when nicky campbell's five live radio phone in programme is shown. nicky campbell listen on bbc sounds

and watch on iplayer. a number of viewers, though, have told us they don't believe a news channel is the right place for a phone in show. here are two of them. we now have the option of watching either a radio phone in programme which is simultaneously broadcast on radio five if we wanted to listen to it or switching to a competitor's news coverage. none of which hold a candle to the bbc's normal offering. so between nine and 11 am, every weekday morning is now a news desert. we've also lost a number of excellent news presenters, the likes of anita mcveigh and martine croxall, who brought empathy and interest to their broadcasts. and whilst i know that the bbc in these straitened times have to save money, surely there are other ways in which this can be done without losing the fundamental quality of bbc news coverage. if i wanted to listen to a radio

phone in or even participate, then i go to the radio and television news and bbc news is a particular medium which is important for a range of things. i don't understand why are you doing it? is it cost saving? if so, just seems to be misplaced. the effect of it is that i, and i suspect many others, migrate to another news medium. and that's sky news. on the point mentioned by sheryl mentioned. they're about the loss of presenters such as anita mcvey and martine croxall. we asked the bbc about their status and that of other female presenters all over 45 who haven't appeared on the news channel since march. the bbc told us we value all of our staff, but we do not comment on individual hr matters. well, let's talk now to paul royle, who is in charge of the news channel.

first thing in the morning then nicky campbell's show is already on the radio. it's already on bbc too. why isn't the news channel showing the bbc news output going out across the world? because that would be a real choice for viewers, wouldn't it, paul? the nicky campbell show takes uk viewers to the heart of talking points every morning, and these talking points are based in news stories. obviously there's news headlines and updates in the nicky campbell show and headlines that run across the bottom of the screen. and of course, as you've seen on those mornings, when perhaps there is a clash, whether there is a big news story oi’ a press conference. for example, earlier in the week when the prime minister and ukraine's president were speaking at the uk — the ukraine conference in london, we ran that news conference instead of nicky campbell. so we're flexible as well. but the programme takes us to people and places and talking points which we think are really valuable to the channel. another question about programmes then is later in the day there are these three strands

verified live, the daily global and the context. our viewers are saying they're alljust news, they're not unique programming. what's the point of this branding? well, obviously, we've only launched that branding fairly recently. the channel isn't in its new format, even even three months old. and so to take verified live, for example, that programme has a relationship with bbc verify, which is the new team and hub that we've set up in the newsroom, which is going deeper behind stories and checking stories out in a more forensic and data led and analytical way. and so, for example, we make space every day to make sure we feature content and analysis from bbc verify. so that's a way in which that programme is forging its own identity. we're going to pause therejust for a moment, paul, to look at the content of the news on the channel, the programming and the international versus the uk focus. so despite that separate stream for uk viewers at certain times of the day, most of the output is shared with audiences around the world. and in the eyes of some, that's led to domestic news being downgraded at the expense of international events.

reporting live from singapore... overnight, that's reflected not just in the choice of stories, but in the presentation, too, which comes from singapore and from washington. this emphasis on foreign news hasn't gone down well with everyone. my name is blackmore. i'm concerned by what has happened to bbc news channel. it seems to have lots and lots of international news with lots of international presenters. really, we need a channel that reflects where it. ..originates from. so can we please go back tojust having the bbc news channel as it was with the news read as it was.

paul, many licence fee payers who've long been watchers of the news channel are really unhappy that they no longer get a dedicated uk bbc news service. and it's not like you can use as boring right now. are you going to have to rethink this? well, again, there's a couple of things there. as you said at the beginning, the channel operates in a couple of ways. there's a combined feed when it's the same content, it's going out to the world and to the uk. but we also have periods when the feed is separate as well with a global feed and a uk feed. and so obviously then that is very uk—facing. we also have the ability to break stories out and spend more time on on a big uk story through the day. for example, when those terrible events in nottingham occurred a couple of weeks ago and we were able to spend the whole day covering those events for uk audiences. and it's interesting because we've just run some audience an audience survey, which is just run by our audience team which hasjust come back. 60% of uk viewers who we've surveyed think the balance is about right between uk and global news and of those who are left it's evenly split between some who think there's too much uk and not enough global and some who think there's too much global and not enough uk. so at this point, and we're thinking

about this all the time, of course we're always thinking about this, but we feel like we are sort of broadly in the right place. some viewers, as we've heard, they really dislike the overnight presentation from singapore and washington. does it really feel like a british news channel at those times? well, obviously, what we're doing is we've got to — we've got to combine new news channel, it's uk and its global. and what we're doing with this sort of idea of following the sun and broadcasting live from singapore and from washington dc through sort of uk night—time hours. and what that means is you've got really dynamic teams who are delivering from different parts of the world during their daytime, covering events in their region, but also events around the world as well. so to give you a good example, our brilliant team in washington, dc. the big interview they secured a few weeks ago one of the godfathers of ai and his fears about what ai can do. that was secured by them through

the night, obviously a highly important big subject and it was the lead story notjust a cross bbc but across lots of places following morning. that is one advantage you would get with teams who are active in chasing stories.— in chasing stories. another concern we have heard _ in chasing stories. another concern we have heard over— in chasing stories. another concern we have heard over the _ in chasing stories. another concern we have heard over the past - in chasing stories. another concern we have heard over the past few i we have heard over the past few weeks is the range of stories being covered on the news channel and a tendency that some feel they have dissected to stick almost excessively to one topic. one example be featured on this programme was the departure of phillip schofield after an affair with the young caliph. similar complaints surfaced the following week when prince harry appeared in the high court against the daily mirror. —— young colleague. this week the channel has covered many hours for the search for the missing submersible wood ended on thursday with the confirmation of the five passengers had died. on the subject on titan, e—mails...

paul, let's deal with that issue. the contrasting coverage of the acker one and the sinking of the migrant boat of the met between last week in which five or 600 people are believed dead. many viewers believe that they got that balance wrong and also that there was something ethically distasteful about that alleged in balance. what you say? obviously titan what happened has been the dominant new story over the last few days and there has been a lot of coverage and there has been a huge audience engagement with that story. it would be wrong to say that bbc news was not covering extensively what happened to the mediterranean a week ago. we were in kalamata reporting live and extensively from there. we had a piece from pakistan's ministerjust last night going to wind the

villages where 28 of the victims are thought to have come from. we are still in kalamata today interviewing survivors from that terrible incident. probably one of the most significant pieces ofjournalism significant pieces of journalism from significant pieces ofjournalism from anyone over the past week on this story was when the bbc, the bbc news established and challenge the greek coastguard's version of events in terms of what happened in the seas and this idea that the boat was continuously moving to italy. another big issue and complaint on the news channel for many viewers is the news channel for many viewers is the rolling hours spent on a story that viewers think is not developing will stop an example is waiting for prince harry at court, the phillip schofield story in view or say why hang on for hours often with the reporter standing outside of the building filling your time when there is nothing new to say. we alwa s there is nothing new to say. - always strive to get that balance right. one thing we know is that

audiences or some audiences at least one that pre—build to a story and we get that through data. of course thatis get that through data. of course that is not always an exact science and sometimes we get it wrong. we are obviously not perfect in that regard. at the same time would you want to deliver a high story count and the viewers who want to take the other subjects and issues as well. if you think about it hard, when there is a big story we know that there is a big story we know that the audiences want to immerse themselves in it that is part of the logic behind what we are doing. we are conscious of this and we always try and strike the right balance. paul real, thank you so much. thank you for all of your comments to speak. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, on tv, radio and social media, e—mail us. or he can find us a twitter. you can call us. do you have a look at previous interviews on our website.

that's all from us will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. bye—bye. our oceans and the marine life they support are under threat. climate change is causing them to warm at record levels and as the seas absorb more co2, they also become more acidic. and that as well as other manmade damage like trawling for fish, can have a devastating impact on important habitats like reefs.

but can technology offer a solution? well, adrian murray has been finding out about some conservation efforts to help bring back marine life. just off the island of samso plans are under way to build an artificial reef, and i'm about tojoin a group of researchers out on the water. ready to go out? so we're now approaching the future reefs right out there to rocky reefs in demo's. cold waters are home to fish, seaweeds and other species. however, an area equivalent to almost 8000 football pitches has disappeared. a lot of rocks have been removed from the sea bed over the 20th century, mainly for the construction of harbours without this essential habitat, basically, a whole ecosystem is being lost. and without human active human and without human active human intervention, we don't expect intervention, we don't expect these habitats to restore. these habitats to restore.

the team are installing cameras the team are installing cameras at hundreds of different spots at hundreds of different spots on the sea bed along on the sea bed along this stretch of coast. this stretch of coast. we're heading out to one of the locations where there's an underwater camera. and over the next several weeks, the researchers are going to be gathering thousands of minutes of underwater footage, which they going analyse to see how much biodiversity is out there. this handy qr code programme for cameras to record for 2 minutes each hour. sets the camera to the right resolution at the right frame rate, and also it shuts down the camera for the other 58 minutes in the hour. and this allows us to record throughout the day. in reality, they don't expect to find very much. but after the new reef is built with thousands of boulders. they'll monitor again and hope to show marine life is bouncing back.