[DTV]

So many years ago, BBC World News America was created for BBC America and sometimes it interrupted programmes for breaking news. Nowadays they showed a newsflash about the Derek Chauvin verdict but aired nothing about the Queen’s death.

It was simulcast from launch (until 2011), but I'm not sure that WNA was created specifically for BBC America, rather it was part of a growing raft of US-targetted programmes on BBC World that emerged after the channel gained significant full-time US distribution in 2006.

News was historically a big part of BBC America's schedule - at one point it had a three-hour 'breakfast' simulcast of BBC World, with World News America serving as an evening programme - and, as you say, was prepared to even switch to World for breaking news coverage. But, I guess because the distribution of BBC World News in the US has expanded so much, simulcasting news has become redundant - especially with them now sharing a distributor. Plus, the slots that were simulcast on BBC America are typically the ones that are/were simulcast by PBS stations - so, even without BBC World News, there would be duplication going on.

Same thing happened with BBC Prime - started trying to emulate network BBC channels, including with news programming at breakfast and evenings, but gradually dropped it due to a) Prime and World's distributions overlapping and b) the cyclical repeat model being cheap and more profitable.