Unlike the American EBAS, the BGOSO is designed as a standalone channel. Normally, it operates as a news network, though with all stories that are played merely from other networks. Only studio segments are NBS produced. In a time of emergency, all channels are required to switch to BGOSO, and news networks required to cooperate and provide information to BGOSO to broadcast. A full time staff is on hand at the NBS main studio in Moscow and secondary studios in St. Petersburg, Volgograd and Vladivostok in case of an emergency, while other cities and districts have a designated channel to use, namely those of the private-state network Pravda.