The National Lottery have sent an email out this week advising where you can watch the draws, pointing people to their social media accounts rather than the iPlayer, though that is mentioned briefly after details of the BBC providing the numbers after the news and on the red button.
Seems this arrangement didn't last long. Just by chance happened to watch Saturdays draw via the red button and at the end viewers were told from next week the draw will be on the Lottery website. Presumably the updates will continue after the news for now at least, but suspect they'll go sooner or later.
Just took a look at the draws on iPlayer and they're in a bit of a strange way, as due to not needing the set anymore they've presumably deconstructed it, apart from the bits surrounding the draw machines, which obviously need to be filmed. Therefore, whenever they want to show a wide shot, they cut to a virtual version of the set. I suppose it offers a bit more flexibility but considering they're not ever going to need to do much, I do wonder why they didn't just film some wide shots whilst the set was still standing.
They also seem to be using takes from two different sessions of recordings of Deadly Alancoat. All the numbers are noticeably quieter than the rest of the speaking in the draw, which has a much stronger echo on it too.
Presumably the updates will continue after the news for now at least, but suspect they'll go sooner or later.
I don't see why they'd need to drop those, they've been doing the midweek and Euromillions draw in that format for years and years, and it's hardly a major imposition on the schedule, it takes seconds to do. Indeed I would suspect that there might be more people seeing the lottery results now, in between the news and Match of the Day, than when they were a programme in their own right.
The spot on BBC One after the news is something I would imagine Camelot would be keen to keep. It seems a natural thing to expect to see on draw days, just like the weather after the news, that keeps in touch older players as their method of checking results without the internet or using the Red Button.
It's also Camelot's way of publicising how many winners they have had. Camelot and the BBC's partnership will probably continue with The National Lottery Awards yearly. It's a shame Deadly Alan Dedicoat couldn't announce the results after the news just to keep a bit of continuity.
No doubt Camelot would like it to remain but it's whether it continues to be seen as a public service I guess and now the draws are no longer on TV it feels like more a commercial enterprise. The BBC website is now just a load of links to a commercial website so I can't see that lasting too long.