[poppydog]

I've thought about what is happening regarding the early "merger" next week and think I've got an idea of what may be happening. (Speculation of course, and not wanting to enter too much into rota chat!)

Would it be the case that combining both channels into E from next week means that C can be used for piloting and testing for the month? As both channels would, I presume, be funded until the new financial year in April - that means the existing budget for two gallery and production teams until then - meaning that additional staff aren't needed to produce and run the pilots? Could it be that those presenters (Matthew, Karin, Yalda etc.) who have been given the Chief Presenter roles, may not feature much in the next month until launch, or appear on air sporadically, as they pilot new ways of working (new headline-less sequences etc.)? And during March the output is fronted by and produced by some of the staff who may end up leaving. 

Then come April, if there are new countdowns, top-of-the-hour sequences etc. they are ready and piloted to run with the existing set-up in C. Then E, if it happens, can be re-vamped for relaunching later in the year when new strands/brands of programmes may be launched?

Of course, all speculation, but may explain the "early" soft launch of the combined service due to budgets and the ability to pilot whilst keeping the legacy services running.