[Jimbo2022]

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?

It must have been planned before Princess Diana died. It launched two and bit months after her death. Surely they couldn’t have arranged it all that quick.

I honestly thought it was done that quickly because when Princess Diana died it happened in the middle of the night but that particular night they joined BBC world anyway instead if closing down for the night.

I thought I had heard it was rushed on the air so that the BBC had a proper news operation for the UK. Originally it was on Orion satellite for cable distribution at 37 west. It was nit available elsewhere until Sky Digital had it from around late may 1998 but could not be seen there until 1 october 1998