If C-SPAN moves ahead with a new programming feature it has recently been testing to complement its public affairs programming, the station that the public already turns to for gavel-to-gavel coverage of Congress might also become the place to go for up-to-the-minute headlines from Capitol Hill, the White House and the Supreme Court.

After wrapping up a two-month trial period earlier this month, C-SPAN officials will soon decide whether to run a new scrolling news-bar feature, called Capital News, on a permanent basis on the station’s various channels.

Trial testing for Capital News, which focuses on news headlines from all three branches of government, began in March on C-SPAN3 and eventually migrated over to C-SPAN. The network experimented by running the programming feature at various times of the day and asking for viewer feedback.

“The comments ran the gamut,” said Jennifer Moire, C-SPAN’s media relations manager. “We’ll be meeting in the near future to determine resources and to review the test and feedback we received.”

Moire said that among the factors C-SPAN officials will take into consideration is how often Capital News would run throughout the day and what kind of human and financial resources it would cost the public affairs network, which is funded by fees paid by the cable television industry.

— John McArdle