[itsrobert]

Yes, that and budgets from 1995 and the 96 Olympics were effectively the pilots for BBC News Online, which then launched the same week as News 24 (the projects being strongly linked, even sharing the flags branding). I suspect they would have wanted to launch the channel for the election, but it wouldn't really matter as very few could watch until the launches of DSAT and DTT in autumn 1998.

Gosh I'd forgotten about BBC News Online sharing the flags branding. In fact, ISTR that even during the red and cream era after the website had received a rebrand, if you found an old article it retained the flags branding. I'm sure I've not made that up!