BBC Look East to scrap regional base in digital news shake up

BBC Look East’s Northamptonshire news will now come from Norwich after the corporation decided to close one of their regional TV newsrooms.

The BBC currently broadcasts two versions of Look East but will close the Cambridge TV base, leaving one programme from November 2022, to be broadcast from Norwich.

Staff were said to be ‘in tears’ at the meeting this morning (Thursday) at the Cambridge Science Park HQ.

One insider said: “It’s gone down like a lead balloon. There were tears in the office. The bulk of Northamptonshire news will now come from Norwich.

"There will still be local news reporters in the area but items will be fighting for air time.”

Another said: “I’m gutted.”

The corporation said its decision to end the Cambridge programme was part of plans to create ‘a modern, digital-led and streamlined organisation that drives the most value from the licence fee and delivers more for audiences’.

A spokesman said proposals across the corporation should make annual savings of £500m and include plans to stop broadcasting smaller linear channels, such as CBBC and BBC Four and Radio 4 Extra, after the next few years.

The BBC spokesman said: "We're proud of our Cambridge service, which has served viewers well and produced some great journalism.

"We need to make tough choices as we change our services in line with audience needs.

"The Cambridge service is one of our lowest performing programmes, has only been running since 2018 and viewers already get news broadcast from Norwich at other times of the day."