The BBC's new director general Matt Brittin has announced a brutal wave of budget cuts, involving the loss of hundreds of jobs and a reduction in output, including one less instalment of BBC Breakfast every week.
From September, the Sunday edition of the broadcaster's morning news show will be replaced by a simulcast of the BBC News Channel.
BBC Radio 4 has been hit the worst, with its flagship Today programme going down from five presenters to four, and only one anchor on Saturdays.
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The station is also having six programmes getting outright cancelled: The World Tonight, Midnight News, Money Box Live, AntiSocial, The Law Show, and Crossing Continents.
The BBC World Service will also lose the shows The Inquiry, The Conversation and The Fifth Floor to the axe.
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The production teams behind Newsnight and Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg will merge, while the BBC's news output across the board look set to be made by smaller teams, due to around 200 job losses.
550 jobs - covering news, nations and TV and radio content - will be lost as part of this announcement, and unfortunately it is only the first step in Brittin's plan.
The new director general said these announced measures should £160 million in savings, while the goal remains to save £500 million in total. Once further measures are announced, it is estimated that 1,800 to 2,000 jobs across the BBC could be lost.
"We live in very uncertain times. Our audiences rely on us every day to keep them informed, entertained and equipped to make sense of the world," Brittin said in an email to staff.
"Making savings while fulfilling our mission means a doubly difficult time for everyone."
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Cathy Sweet, the head of TV and film at performing arts union Equity, added: "These are devastating cuts that will be felt across the creative industries and risk BBC audiences and our nation being poorer, with the BBC unable to live up to its aim to inform, educate and entertain.
"The BBC is a cornerstone of the UK’s creative sector, serving as a training ground, a pipeline for young talent, an investor in local economies, and so much more. Far from facing cuts, it should be revitalised as the foundational civic institution that it is."
The National Union of Journalists explained that the cuts are "devastating for audiences and communities everywhere" and warned that "there's more to come", calling for the government to intervene "urgently".
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.














