CHANNEL 4 is to axe its lunchtime news programme and More4 News, it was announced yesterday.
The broadcaster said it had revised its deal with ITN, which provided its bulletins, and wanted to concentrate resources on the main evening show.
A three-minute summary bulletin will be broadcast at lunchtime in place of News At Noon, Channel 4 s
aid, but news is to be cut from the More4 schedule altogether. The decision, which will almost certainly lead to redundancies, was broken to staff in what one employee called a "grim staff meeting" yesterday.
In a statement, Channel 4 said: "Under the terms of the revised deal, Channel 4 will continue to broadcast the same number of hours of news in peak. In addition, Channel 4 is investing extra resources in news online to create an improved political news service.
"In order to afford this investment at a time when the advertising downturn is forcing Channel 4 to cut its programme budget, we need to find efficiencies elsewhere in our news budget and have decided to cut More4 News and News at Noon, although we do intend to offer a short summary bulletin at lunchtime." It said the changes came against a backdrop of severe economic slowdown.
News of the cuts emerged when Benjamin Cohen, the Channel 4 News technology correspondent, wrote about it on his Twitter webpage. "Grim staff meeting," he wrote. "News at Noon and More4 News cancelled. Wonder how it will be reflected on-screen tonight."
