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BBC News: “Heading for 1 bulletin a day as social takes over”

August 20, 2020

Fran Unsworth, the BBC’s head of news, has said the number of traditional TV bulletins will likely be cut over the next few years as more people consume news online.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Unsworth said she thought there might only be one bulletin a day.

Asked whether the News at Ten might survive but not the News at Six, Unsworth replied: “Possibly, or maybe the other way round.”

The News at One is the corporation’s other major daily national bulletin.

When asked to predict how TV news would change over the next five or 10 years, Unsworth replied: “I think TV journalism will still be around because of the power of pictures to tell a story, but it won’t necessarily be received in quite the forms it currently is. So, I still think, ultimately in 10 years’ time, we probably won’t be consuming linear bulletins exactly. I mean, I might be wrong about that. I doubt it.”

She continued: “There might be one [bulletin] a day, or something. I think there’ll be fewer of them. But I think that the power of how you tell stories through television, pictures, video will just be in a different space. It’ll be in the digital space, it’ll be on, you know, iPlayer. It’ll be on your tablet, your iPhone. We have to think creatively about what the product is, but that’s the direction of travel and I don’t think that’s changed.”

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