[Worzel]

www.thetimes.co.uk 

Staff on the venture were told last week about plans to launch the channel on April 3 with pilots beginning on Monday and a dry run scheduled from March 6. They were assured that “it won’t be a big bang moment”; instead there would be “a lot of trial and error” for a few months, prompting mixed reaction.

A senior journalist involved in the venture was heard dismissing its chances of success. “It’s going to crash and burn like Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s experiment,” the insider said.

There was some speculation about whether pilots for the new channel had begun yet. According to this Times article, they don't start until Monday (20 February) with dry runs starting from 6 March.

I mentioned that the new channel would launch on 3 April as I'd seen the distribution email (and it hadn't been cited anywhere else), so nice to see an article online backing up what I said a few weeks ago.

My guess still remains the same. The new channel will soft launch from studio A with a VR render of what a refitted studio E will eventually look like. Once E is refitted, the channel will move there and A will eventually become the UK opt-out studio.

The Times article states...

"Several innovations are being devised to make the channel more dynamic than its predecessors.

Presenters will leave their desks to roam the studio, showing the newsroom as part of the BBC’s push towards transparency and impartiality".

That can ONLY happen with studio E. I also take it from that paragraph - after 11 years of having the newsroom behind them in E, presenters might actually venture out into it on air from time to time.