[DTV]

As described above, I like the occasional janky opts (*shuffles papers*), but that's only cause I see it for what it is. Should they aim for better, yes. Do most folks care, no.

But as you say, I also think time to add context to the story/event is the key thing lost if capacity is reduced/airtime shared under pressure.

I mean the opts can't be messier than they were on BBC World around 2004 when they changed the way that the regions opted for breaks and consequently had several months of very dodgy opts.

With shared programming, the best way to opt-out is probably to incorporate stings or tags on at least one side of each World break - it's a little less awkward than the pause. For breaking news opts, I think you definitely need to opt-out with a sting - I feel it makes cutting somebody off mid-sentence a bit cleaner (a sort of presentational guilotine) than switching immediately to a presenter. When it comes to opting back in to the main stream, probably best to wait until the next World break, having the opt presenter recap/analyse in the meantime, then start the next joint section with a headline recap.