[Transmission]

Clearly, (non-royal) obit procedure is not entirely rigid, with final decision making resting with whoever is on duty at BBC One.

Even with royal obits and how set in stone they appear to be, there's always been a bit of fluidity when it comes to things happening during certain big sporting events like a World Cup or Six Nations for example. Certainly when it comes to the lower categories of obits, things like whether there's a big new programme or an old repeat on are taken into account.

It feels like it was as late decision for BBC One to join the News Channel, and they were already into the Presidential statement. I don't know if there is a facility in the news galleries to do a voiceover only on the output going to BBC One at short notice? That might have helped to soften the crash.

I understand the particular circumstances that messed that one up were that all the plans being made were based on assurances about an embargoed release or some sort of heads-up in advance. The decision would have already been made that BBC One must be interrupted for the announcement of the news, but of course not for just a health update, and the one thing that definitely wasn't going to happen - the news being announced in a statement with no forewarning of what was going to be in it - is what ended up happening. The continuity into it was famously not great, but that gives an idea of what would have been going on.