[Radio_man]

The BBC never had a news channel in UK before 1997. World started when they split world service television into BBC world and BBC prime.

Only when Princess Diana died - 8 and a half years after Sjy News started - did the BBC even consider doing a bewjs channel.

The BBC were never told to start a news channel as far as I know. World Service radio existed since 1932 but it took them 60 years to start a news TV channel

Given we used nit to have a BBC news channel could they get away with just closing it altogether?

Apart from a skeleton "standby" team that apparently will be available at a moment's notice to spring into action to cover a major breaking UK news story (or so we are told), essentially the BBC News Channel is being closed. 

Yes, a news channel from the BBC will still be broadcast in the UK, but the vast majority of the output will be produced by BBC World with the rest being simulcasts of existing BBC output from elsewhere (5 Live simulcasts, Breakfast, BBC 1 weekday bulletins, Sunday with Laura K, no doubt Newsnight, Politics Live and possibly even Question Time will find their way onto the UK feed of the channel as well)

So World viewers will still get a 24/7 news channel, whilst UK viewers will get a mish mash of programs that are available on other UK channels and on iPlayer, with World bulletins filling in the gaps.