As with most 24 hour news channels, BBC News 24 can be incredibly tedious - except when theres an intresting or important breaking story, then I'm glued. And that's when BBC News truly comes into it's own. The BBC are such a huge news agency that they're able to get details/videos/photos before anyone else. It's these big news stories which really make the channel. Normally though, it's far more dull. But that doesn't matter too much, because normally (I imagine) not that many people are watching. It's not exactly meant to be watched in long sessions.

When it comes to 24 hour news, I tend to favour BBC over Sky for one reason only. Sky is annoyingly peppered with disruptive adverts. So let's say I wanted to quickly check what's going on, I get greeted with an advert for talcolm powder or whatever.

There is alot of emphasis on political stories, which is good in my opinion. I don't want my news to be full of pointless gossip, I liked to be informed but sometimes it can be just downright boring.

The layout's pretty simple and uncluttered. Just a little ticker tape across the bottom with the time. I also enjoy the countdown thing they do every hour, makes me feel like I'm at a rave.

Unfortunately for BBC News 24, good news doesn't occur as often as they'd like it to. This results in them stringing out good stories for as long as possible and making nothing-stories into something-stories by repeating them over and over.

The presenters aren't anything to talk about. A bunch of middle-aged robotic smiley-faced autocue readers. As long as they read the news without stuttering all over the place, then they've done their job.

The sport section is also a pain because 99.9% of the time it's stuff I don't care about. Someone scored a goal, someone hit a wicket, someone got sold from Something City to Something United for an outrageous sum of money... ad infinitum. Yeah, I don't care. If I wanted sports news (which I don't) then I'd be watching one of the sports new channels.

The entertainment segment (or E24 as it's called, because that's cool apparently) can range between stupid fawning over celebrities and fascinating insights into the industry.

By far the best thing about this channel is the fifteen-odd minutes of Mark Kermode, a film critic who I admire immensely, who's wheeled in once a week to provide his excellent critique on the newest box office and DVD releases. Even though it's usually just a shortened version of what he's said on his radio show, it's still good to see him in the flesh.

'Click' a 30 minute show about tech-related business, is pretty intresting although I find the presenter a little creepy.

BBC News 24 is also viewable online, which is great.