BBC Radio 5 Live news summaries are being brought together with those of Radio 2, 3 and 4 from Friday as part of a streamlining of services announced by the Corporation.
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the BBC has announced a series of cuts to its services.
The News Channel is moving to a “core news service” from today; Politics Live and the Victoria Derbyshire Show will be taken off air on BBC Two; and Question Time will be broadcast without a studio audience and held at the earlier time of 8pm every Thursday.
The Week in Westminster on Radio 4 will be suspended after 21 March, and The Andrew Neil Show, Hardtalk, Newswatch and the Travel Show are also being suspended. Newsnight and Andrew Marr will remain on air, although using fewer technical staff.
The BBC will continue to run a continuous news service on TV, radio and online, with BBC Breakfast and the One, Six and Ten news bulletins remaining unaffected.
“Trusted, accurate information is vital in a public health emergency and the BBC has a key role to play,” said news director Fran Unsworth.
“Like many organisations we are unable to have all our staff on site due to the coronavirus outbreak. We are therefore making some changes to what we do to streamline our output to ensure we can work with fewer people and protect the staff who are at work.”
The BBC said it can protect much of its regular radio output, but is keeping the situation “under close review” and already making some changes.
Online, the BBC will focus on its social media accounts with the largest followings, meaning posts on smaller accounts will be suspended over the coming days.
