A shorter News at Ten for BBC

THE BBC News at Ten could be cut by more than ten minutes to appeal to younger audiences – just three years after it was extended.

The corporation is said to be planning to trim the nightly news to stop viewers switching to ITV. Currently, the News at Ten begins on BBC1 at 10pm, turning into the regional news from 10.30-10.45pm.

A source said the timings have made it ‘difficult’ to schedule programmes to start after the news, and that it clashes with the start of Newsnight on BBC2. Under the plans, five minutes would be cut from the main national broadcast, four minutes from the regional and 90 seconds from the weather.

The change could happen as soon as March and a BBC source said: ‘Clearly for significant news events we would always retain the ability to extend the news.’

The News at Ten was extended by ten minutes in January 2016 to give ‘even more news analysis and explanation’.