Growth of digital platforms reflected in audience fall
Alex Scott filled with ‘anxiety’ in expectation of backlash
The BBC will take Football Focus off air this summer, bringing to an end a 52-year stint as the unofficial kick-off to the sporting weekend.
The national broadcaster said it had given “extensive consideration” to the decision to scrap the Saturday lunchtime programme, but the news will hardly come as a surprise as the changing nature of fans’ media consumption has left the venerable televison show quietly forgotten in the age of clips and livestreams.
The BBC said Football Focus’s demise would be offset by an increase in digital content, including new sports shows made directly for YouTube as part of a deal between the broadcaster and media platform. The director of BBC Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, denied that the move had come about as a result of cost-cutting, with as many as one in 10 jobs set to be lost at the corporation over the next two years.
