The BBC have confirmed that that they will extend the 10 o’clock news bulletin by ten minutes in 2016. Media Guardian reports:

“The move to end the main bulletin at 10.45pm, first reported by the Guardian last week and expected to be announced officially later today, will increase the overlap with Newsnight, BBC2’s current affairs programme, which starts at 10.30pm.”

Of course, MediaGuido readers knew all about the changes six weeks ago:

“There are concerns that plans from Beeb bosses to let the News at Ten run on until 10:45pm would further eat into Newsnight’s ratings, dire news given the first ten minutes of the programme are already killed by the local news on BBC1.”

The move is killer for the already embattled Newsnight, which has recently been trimmed by five minutes. The longer news bulletin on BBC1 is looking at spending more time on each story, and running in depth political interviews with Laura K. The fear is that renders Newsnight somewhat obsolete…