[interestednovice]

Well, yes, but we have already seen the “template” for such hours as part of the extended simulcasts that already exist.

My main assumption has always been that the 10:00 'fudge' hour will broadly serve as a template for the new channel, particularly in terms of editorial balance. That's the only real example we have of simulcasting during peak-UK breaking news hours. It's why I think those who are rather pessimistic about the amount of UK news on the channel are likely to be pleasantly surprised, especially considering Turness has been reported on several occasions as demanding more UK news on it.

Yes, and although the simulcast started as an opportunity to clean Studio C during the pandemic (since B had gone out of use, C was broadcasting almost 24/7) and cover a sort of gap in shifts for BBC World News, it’s been obvious in recent times that they have been using it as a testbed “live pilot” of the editorial balance for the merged channel, using the real stories of the day to see how it works - and to see if UK or World viewers notice.

There are a few things to add to that, though, that make it less simple than it would initially appear. The 10am hour is one of World News’s quietest hours, it is not prime-time in Asia or America and it is 11am in Central Europe - Europeans watching are likely to be at least vaguely interested in British news anyway, plus even for them it’s not a key time.

It’s also been a NC-produced simulcast, not a WN-produced one. This means it has made less provision for WN than most simulcasts do - and is really treated as WN “dropping in” to the NC schedule for an hour, rather than the other way around. Other than ending at 10:55, to allow for adverts at the end of the hour, there are no  real breaks as there usually are on WN. One assumes that they don’t manage to air as many ads as usual during this hour. That may be OK, as it’s not one of their peak times and it’s easier on the NC team not to have to worry too much about the ad breaks, but I doubt it would work for every hour.

My take on Turness now being forceful about a requirement for more UK-News is also somewhat opposite to yours. My working assumption is that the original plan was very little UK news; the reason she then pushed back so strongly against it was that she felt that was unworkable and unacceptable for British audiences after she had reviewed the plans. So my expectations are still not high.