[4] In recent years, major networks such as NBC have begun using "Special Report" tickers for select breaking stories during regularly scheduled programming, lessening the need for cut-ins.
If coverage continues for an extended amount of time, the network may integrate analysis about the story through analysts in-studio, via phone, satellite, broadband (B-GAN) or through other means of communication.
[7] In the United States, the competitive nature of commercial networks has allowed for pundits to develop their skills and dedicate themselves to respond to breaking news with analysis in a variety of fields, most often political.
[7] In 2015, the Financial Times suggested that with modern technological developments broadening news coverage, and with networks opting to show "livelier" non-expert comments from social media more, the need for talking heads may be shrinking.
In the United Kingdom, Independent Radio News provides special alarm systems specifically to notify its affiliates of deaths in the British royal family, mandating their participation in heavily-coordinated mourning protocols that are practiced by the government and broadcasters.
[11] The New York Times split its push notifications into "Breaking News" and less urgent "Top Stories" in 2016, after modifying its email lists in the same way.
[12] National Public Radio increased its push notifications significantly in 2018, notifying app users about both breaking news and programming information, to mixed reactions from its audience.
KTLA in Los Angeles is credited with being the first television station to provide extended coverage of a breaking news event: for 27½ hours from April 8 to 9, 1949, the station carried live coverage of an attempt to rescue three-year-old Kathy Fiscus, who had fallen down an abandoned well in San Marino, California, where she ultimately perished due to asphyxia from a lack of oxygen.
In North America until the 1990s, television and radio stations normally only provided long-form weather coverage during immediate, ongoing threats, such as a tornado or a landfalling hurricane.
CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht wrote upon assuming the position in 2022, "It has become such a fixture on every channel and network that its impact has become lost on the audience."
To coincide with the promo, on its website, WDRB posted "Contracts" with its viewers and advertisers, with the former list promising to use "breaking news" judiciously (applying it to stories that are "both 'breaking' and 'news'").