[DTV]

Obviously we don't know what the service is going to be like until it launches, and how they will handle breaking UK news, but from the general opinion on here and in the media, domestic coverage is going to play very little part of the new channel, so it will be of very little interest to those, like me, looking for the latest on UK related stories predominantly. It was suggested earlier in the thread that viewing figures have collapsed for the late evening now that they have dropped the Papers, so if the general outcome of this is that no-one watches, and goes elsewhere for their news, then what's the point of it being there. 

As others have said, it's not a merger, they are replacing the UK News Channel with BBC World News.

The idea that viewing figures for the channel are going to collapse significantly is one of the those 'inside the bubble' attitudes that is unlikely to be reflected in reality. Viewing figures for the former The Papers slots have fallen because they were one of the few appointment-to-view programmes on the channel (with direct competition) and have been replaced with typical back-half filler. Cutting The Papers was probably a mistake, but it shouldn't be taken as representative of the channel. As far as I'm aware, the simulcasts in the evening since 2015 have not negatively impacted viewership.

Is the merged channel ideal? No. Could the BBC be reasonably be doing more in terms of separate output? Yes. But will it be such a massive change as to it be reasonable for the BBC to have no news channel in the UK? No.

Fundamentally, all the major 'switch on the News channel' events are still going to be covered on the new channel. And in terms of the general hour, I'm more expecting a World/UK balance somewhere in the region of the current 10:00 hour. I could be wrong, but quite frankly I really don't think the BBC has the balls to do anything more radical (from the perspective of the UK viewer). Turness' recent comments about wanting more UK news on the channel have only solidified my expectation that the crappy compromise hour is the future.