[qwerty123]

There's currently 3 morning presenter shifts from NBH; 5 - 7am, 7 - 9am & 9am - 12pm.
Yet on Wednesdays, there's no actual dedicated full hour of news on the UK stream until 1pm. 
I don't understand why 9am - 12pm can't be 3 hours of UK focussed news and branded as such with say Martine, Karin or Annita, it could be called "UK Today". After all, the channel is meant to focus on its core markets at peak times in those markets. 
9am - 12pm is a busy time for developing UK news and the UK news agenda is set for the day, and this will apply even more so over the next 12 - 18 months in the long build up to the General Election. Yet UK viewers get a radio phone-in every morning. I just don't get it.

Whilst there are 3 presenter slots this doesn’t necessarily mean there are 3 gallery teams or floor managers or that those slots could be extended to allow one of them to move to a fixed UK opt.
Two of the shifts already provide the backbone for the ad hoc opt out ability for the majority of the day and therefore can on occasion be on air for over 6 hours in a day (the 7-9am presenter is the opt presenter until 2pm most days with the 9-12 presenter leading the opt out from 2 until the news at 6 and then producers cover any evening opt outs), and the third appear to be a dedicated team whose contracts could well remain unchanged from prior to the opt and who may well remain attached primarily to the business unit rather than the channel (and therefore could be unable to appear outside of their current hours without the Martine situation occurring).
The later editions of WBR ado typically have a stand alone presenter but when Ben Thompson is presenting he typically fits it around a news shift at least once a week and on occasion every day for the week.
Furthermore whilst people on here may feel that mornings are the busiest time in the news agenda the usual time for UK opts and the fact that previous human interest segments on the channel have also aired in the 9-11am slot would suggest that the busiest hours for UK News are actually 10:30-14:30 and therefore any UK opt finishing at 12 would miss a lot of UK news whilst almost certainly reducing the ability to opt during the afternoon when breaking news is arguably more likely.