New BBC News programme boss John McAndrew, recently arrived from GB News, has told staff that he's considering extending BBC Breakfast's weekday hours, and producing a longer version of the BBC bulletin at one o'clock, from Salford.
Mr McAndrew says discussions are underway with the BBC1 team, and that nothing has been decided, and nothing will happen this year.
Extending news programmes has become a fashionable way of reducing costs, cf ITV's hour starting at 6.30pm. BBC1 would get one and a half hours of extra programming a day at a lower tariff than most other genres. BBC Breakfast already runs to 10am on Saturdays, so editor Richard Frediani, formerly of ITV, has already demonstrated an appetite for more pink on the map.
It probably means an early end to the simulcasting of Radio 5Live's 9am phone-in on the News Channel, unless the last hour of Breakfast becomes too frothy. Will BBC News be honest about the total costs of moving the 1 O'Clock team to MediaCityUK ? Will next year's staff survey in News produce more or less than the current 21% of staff agreeing "I am confident in the future direction and strategy of BBC News" ?
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