[Stuart]

To be fair, he's from the editorial side of things - might not necessarily be on top of the finances behind it. The figure quoted by other sources was that the merger would save roughly £25m on the UK side (around 40% of the current NC budget - though, worth noting, this still doesn't even put BBC News' budget cuts in the top three worst affected channels!).

So why not just admit "we've got rid of the domestic channel"?

He promised us we'll get simulcasts of what is already available elsewhere in the UK on the BBC, including radio. When this was questioned, he simply said "people take their news from different sources, including the News Channel".

I appreciate how they're trying to spin this, but I doubt people are swallowing it!  Telling me I've got 7.5 hours of daily domestic-focused news on 'The New BBC News Channel' is rather like sending me an email twice and claiming that they're special or different.

I already have access to it, I don't need it to be broadcast TWICE! Peddling it as a seperate service for 7.5 hours a day is disingenuous to say the least.