[DTV]

Speaking of BBC One bulletins, what was the original rationale behind simulcasting the 1/6/10 on the News Channel? Was it because they would be sharing the same studios?

Cost saving. IIRC they started simulcasting the bulletins in 2006. At that stage BBC One were in N6 and News 24 were in N8, but obviously firing up one studio is cheaper than two which is why they chose to simulcast the bulletins.

It was at the time of a cost-saving push, but I don't think simulcasting was a major contributor to that - certainly not as much as axing things like the morning BBC World News bulletin and Business Today. There was obviously a lot of PR-speak about integrated newshours (which would have been good if they'd actually ever been integrated), but duplication was one of the key factors. Unless you had a big breaking news story, you basically had a situation where both News 24 and the One and Six were doing the same stories in a similar order, often with News 24 having to wait to use the same location reporters.

Ultimately, it was decided better to just produce the one programme, though with News 24 retaining the ability to stay with rolling news coverage if necessary. As with many 'retain the ability to's, this became less and less frequent - particularly after the sharing of studios began in 2008.