Two years after the merger of the BBC’s two news channels, the BBC is axing much of its UK-specific sports news provision.Staff at the BBC Sport Centre in Salford were informed of the planned cuts on Wednesday, which will see long-running sports news programme Sportsday axed later this year.The programme, broadcast at 6:30pm on the BBC News channel, dodged the fallout of the merger of the BBC’s domestic and international news channels in 2023. At the time, it was cited as an example of how the BBC would continue to preserve UK-specific output on the UK feed of the combined channel.27 posts will be axed as a result of the end of Sportsday and most other sports bulletins on BBC News.However, 27 new posts will be created in new roles creating content for the BBC’s online services. Union consultation is underway, with an accelerated voluntary redundancy programme available.Responding to the announcement to staff, a BBC Sport spokeswoman said: “The proposed changes would allow us to enhance our storytelling and live event coverage to ensure we remain relevant and deliver more value for audiences across the UK.”As a result, the BBC will focus on breaking sports stories ‘digitally’, i.e. online. The BBC News channel will continue to provide less frequent sports updates as part of its international feed.However, staunch critics of the BBC will question why more licence fee money is being diverted from broadcasting to compete with operators of commercial sports websites and apps. Well-resourced pay TV rivals Sky Sports and TNT Sports already have a wide-ranging free online provision from websites through to social media outlets with free clips, analysis and highlights.Sports news within BBC One news bulletins will continue.BBC Sports news bulletins currently share a studio with BBC Breakfast and BBC News at One. The studio space was rebuilt in 2023 for an undisclosed cost to allow BBC News and Sport to share facilities. At the time, the BBC said the studio would be in use for up to 20 hours a day. However, the impending cuts could now see the studio space remain unoccupied for most of the time.The changes planned at BBC Sport went public just weeks before the BBC has to outline any other changes or cuts it is planning to make to its services this coming year.The BBC Annual Plan for the twelve months commencing April 2025 must be published by the end of March. Previous plans have released details of proposed cuts to services into the public domain for the first time.
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