BBC News and BBC World to merge

[Mr Q]

That was the point of my comparison with ITV, SVT, NRK etc.: it is perfectly possible to cover domestic breaking news without a rolling news channel dedicated to the task. When significant news breaks, you cut in with a special broadcast. The principle works just as well for opting out of a global news channel as it does for breaking into regular programming on a general TV channel.

But, as bbctvtechop pointed out, for them to be able to opt-out for non-planned breaking news, they will have to have multiple teams on stand-by for that event - at which point you might as well just make the opt permanent. My understand of what has been announced is that the only time there will be two gallery teams in the building is during the evening, with the second team there for the Six and Ten. ITV, by comparison, do have a national gallery and presenting team ready all day. The only way that a semi-regular opt could reasonably work is if you seperate the One from the News Channel - they could also serve as a standby-team for the late-mornings and early afternoons - but that would be contrary to what has been announced.

I'm sorry that I can't see your optimism about the new channel, I just feel this is all leading to an unappealing fudge that doesn't really work for either audience.

To go back to what I said earlier, my point was that you could draw on the resources already used for the regular bulletins (including Breakfast). There are news teams and studios across the UK that could play a role. Moreover, an urgent opt-out could - until more resources are called in - be a cross to Five Live with fixed cameras set up in the radio studios. But I still think we're talking about a relatively rare set of circumstances where that would be necessary:
- for things that are known or foreseeable (eg. major political events), additional resourcing for a planned opt-out could be arranged
- for relatively minor UK-specific "breaking news" (eg. politician says X), run a live blog on the BBC News website - TV coverage can wait until the flagship bulletins (that audience is well-served anyway by other UK news channels)
- for significant and unexpected breaking news (eg. a terror attack), it wouldn't be out of place for the (global) news channel to cover the story - at least until additional resources are called in for domestic coverage.

The residual is significant/unexpected breaking news that is only of interest to a UK audience, with zero relevance for international viewers. Maybe I lack imagination, but I can't see there being that many events that fit that category.

I am clearly more optimistic than many here about the BBC's ability to continue to deliver a relevant, high-quality public service to the UK with a model that better matches audience needs in the 2020's rather than the 1990's.