Lo and behold, discovery+ does not stream the episodes they put on tv channels until the year after or something stupid. Luckily, I had a free trial so I just canceled at no cost, but they lost any chance of getting me in the future by gate keeping their content like that.
Only streamer with decent selection of global news in a skinny-ish package seems to be Sling, but what you describe would be ideal.
Same is true of national news. If the commercial doesn't run, there's other (semi-throwaway) content. Same is true for national news during the weather segment, local news can splice in a local weather and if they don't, it's national or regional weather.
Because of this, they should be able to sell the non-overlay version with content instead of ads. Sure it's throwaway content, but at least it's not yelling at you to buy things.