Match of the Day will not show less football, despite the chairman of the BBC wanting it to do so.
On the same day the corporation confirmed it planned a major overhaul of its sports department, which will include offering most staff voluntary redundancy and scrapping 27 jobs, those working on its flagship football programme were told that it would remain fundamentally unaltered when Gary Lineker steps down as host.
However, Football Focus is set for a shake-up after haemorrhaging viewers since Alex Scott became presenter.
The news was delivered to the likes of Scott and Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer by BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelksi during a summit on Thursday at Gary Neville’s Hotel Football near Old Trafford.
It came days after BBC chairman Samir Shah told the Sunday Times the show “should not be built around highlights. It should be built around analysis and examination of the match to give viewers a deeper insight”.
Shah was said to have acknowledged many viewers had already watched top-flight goals long before Match of the Day aired on a Saturday or Sunday night.
Telegraph Sport has been told they will be able to do so on BBC iPlayer from 8pm next season under the new Premier League television deal.
Football Focus, meanwhile, will be ordered to deliver punchier interviews and debate to arrest ratings slump since Scott succeeded Dan Walker.
Kay-Jelksi delivered the news a day after leaving many BBC Sport staff facing uncertain futures.
As well as announcing plans to scrap 27 jobs, he told them BBC News programme Sportsday faced the axe, along with a number of presenting roles, and that the frequency of sports bulletins on the channel will also be reduced.
Telegraph Sport has been told the 27 jobs will be replaced by the same number of new roles, for which those affected will be able to apply. The changes are also subject to consultation with trade unions.
An “accelerated voluntary redundancy” window will be opened for most BBC Sport staff, with the corporation said to need to deliver savings as part of its Value for All strategy.
The news came on the same day the BBC announced former Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill had joined 5 Live after it secured exclusive radio rights to the sport for the next three seasons.
A spokeswoman said: “The proposed changes would allow us to enhance our storytelling and live event coverage to ensure we remain relevant and deliver more value for audiences across the UK.”
The shake-up is expected to see the BBC focus more on its football coverage, with one of the proposed new roles being a “Football Correspondent (Tactics)”, who will be tasked with “delivering tactical insights to football fans”.
The overhaul of the sports department will involve placing an emphasis on reporting breaking stories digitally and streaming them on the website, as well as deeper storytelling around sporting events.
Any changes will not affect the weekday sports bulletins on BBC1’s main news programmes at 1pm, 6pm and 10pm.
