BBC NEWS CUTS

Well its a BBC World News production, so not the same budgets its commercial funded and is a brand used on TV, Radio and Online. It's highly unlike to be axed as its sold to PBS in America,

Forgive my ignorance, but what does the name 'Outside Source' mean, in terms of a rolling news channel and this programme?

Outside Sources are the lines going into a studio. They're usually abbreviated OS, is OS1 is line 1 OS2, line 2 etc

Outside Source refers to like all the different feeds coming into the newsroom, like video, audio, images and text. The idea is to be in the heart of the World's Newsroom and bring as new details come in as, bringing the expertise from the 27 languages and viewers

OK, thank you.
I wonder how many of the general public know this technical phrase means.

Just for future reference if you wanted to know other similar terms for OS you may hear are REM (remote), FIFO (first in first out), NEMO (not emanating from main office); in the US they may label ENG (for electronic news gathering - specifically the live trucks and helicopter) and SNG or SAT for (satellite news gathering or satellite). If a station uses bonded cellular it may be listed as CNG or an abbreviation of the device manufacturer if they use multiple types.

I’m pretty sure the term Outside Source doesn’t mean a great deal to most viewers but the programme (or at least the original programme) goes to great effort to deconstruct the way normal news bulletins are presented and tries to get back to the original components of stories: reports, live shots, news wires, tweets, primary information sources if you like. That whole ethos of storytelling was the original premise for the programme.

You've pretty much described a standard hour on a rolling news channel. Reports, live shots, news wires and tweets. And this is my problem with some of these branded programmes - apart from some gimmickry like big screens, different music and graphics, they're essentially the same as anything else.

Yes, I think I would prefer to just have the newsreader sitting there reading the autocue to introduce reports.
I don't want to see them fiddling and faffing around pressing screens. I can use my computer or phone and press screens myself to find the information.

It's basically just someone going through all the stores - like you would on social media, on the app or website - but they control the running order and what we see.

But all the same, not running intros and packages is what attracted PBS to take the programme and why the show is more sellable - it’s genuinely different to most ‘built’ bulletins.

Outside Source comes originally from the BBC World Service radio programme (now known as BBC OS) which involved Ros Atkins (now Nuala McGovern) presenting the programme from a desk in the middle of the newsroom rather than from a studio.

The idea was that they could then draw on the expertise of the World Service journalists from the newsroom somewhat more easily than in a studio environment.

The TV programme did do that a lot when it was on the balcony, with specialist correspondents and editors being interviewed more than would have happened in the normal bulletin.

And to be fair to Ros Atkins and the Outside Source team, they also did a lot of research of social media and looked behind some of the stories. Look at his twitter feed for the in-depth analysis that they did of the Australian fires not too long ago.

It was slightly more than “fiddling and faffing”.