The BBC has announced a change to its schedules that will affect how viewers can watch Breakfast.
- Sudden change to the schedule from Wednesday 15th January
- Ends arrangement that has been in place since October 2000.
- Will unlock licence fee funded news programmes previously unavailable to licence fee payers
The BBC will no longer routinely simulcast its breakfast news programme on the BBC News Channel from this week as a part of a pilot.
The change means that viewers watching or live streaming BBC News in the UK will now see live rolling news and business between 6am and 9am Monday to Friday, starting Wednesday 15th January. The UK feed of BBC News will show programmes currently only going out globally on the international feed of the channel.
The sudden announcement was made to staff late last week, with a late schedule change made on Friday evening confirming the abrupt midweek change in arrangement. It’ll give viewers a choice between rolling news and business on BBC News or Breakfast’s more informal approach to news on BBC One.
Breakfast will continue as normal on BBC One between 6am and 9:30 each weekday, where the majority of viewers watch the programme. Weekend editions of the programme will continue to be simulcast across either BBC One or BBC Two and BBC News, at least until 9am.
In the event of a major news story breaking in the UK, BBC News would be able to switch back to Breakfast.
End of a 25 year arrangement
BBC One and the BBC News Channel (formerly News 24) have routinely simulcast Breakfast since October 2000, with few exceptions in recent years due to the Olympics. BBC News was originally the only place to watch the full edition of Sunday’s programme due to the Match of the Day repeat on BBC One. However, the BBC now switches Breakfast from BBC One to BBC Two on Sundays. Ahead of the split, BBC News has already been spotted breaking away from Breakfast to join rolling news coverage.
Following the change, viewers in the UK will be able to watch licence fee funded bulletins that have until now been only officially available outside of the country. This includes ongoing news and business coverage, which has currently only been shown in the UK between 5am and 6am.
Editorial content and operation of the international feed of BBC News, previously known as BBC World News, was transferred to the licence fee funded part of BBC News, the Public Service news operation, in 2021. This paved the way for the BBC to merge international and UK news channels. Previously, BBC World News was operated by a commercial subsidiary. The BBC continues to monetise the international feed through advertising and distribution deals via BBC Studios.
The changes will however mean the introduction of some new UK-specific output on BBC News. Currently, the international feed breaks for commercially sponsored short programmes at 6:55 and 7:55am, as well as non-news programming at 8:30, which will need to be filled in for UK viewers.
Unclarity over sign language output
The BBC hasn’t clarified what this means for viewers wanting to watch the signed version of Breakfast, shown between 7 and 8am on BBC News. The BBC News channel is obligated to carry BSL signing on a percentage of its live linear programmes to meet Ofcom’s Access Services requirements. It is also unclear if the BBC consulted with stakeholders in the Deaf community ahead of making the decision. The BBC has not commented on the changes.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: BBC