[Moz]

That could be a clever move from BBC News - putting the UK breaking news opt-out via a red button sending you to an iPlayer stream, rather than the UK broadcast changing.

This way they could monitor how much interest there is, and work out the cost per button push!

If a major UK story breaks and very few people press red to watch the coverage, then they know to scale it back. However if every time UK viewers are given the opportunity to watch the break away service tens of thousands choose to view, then they know it’s worth expanding the offering.

This is assuming a degree of digital literacy (and connected devices), though. 

I suspect the hard truth here is that the 'UK focus' aspect will quietly be shelved after some clunky and rather cumbersome opt outs. In its place, the BBC focus on new media will come into its own and the 'expensive, hotel traveller looking for a summary' will continue on this channel.

Well this is what Katie Razzall said last July…

“I've been told that £4m will be reinvested in new "future-facing" plans, financed from the £12.5m being saved by merging the channels. Those include a live and breaking news team it's believed will significantly increase the BBC's capacity to offer breaking stories across all its platforms, including, crucially, BBC iPlayer.”

So, perhaps it will be on iPlayer only?

www.bbc.co.uk