BBC Four & CBBC will END as audiences ‘watch streaming shows instead’ with 1,000 jobs slashed in £500m broadcaster cuts

BBC Four and CBBC will be scrapped as normal TV channels amid a huge shake up that will see 1,000 jobs cut.

The channels will appear in their current format until 2025.

BBC chief Tim Davie announced the move today as more viewers move to streaming services to watch their programmes.

He also revealed around 1,000 jobs will be cut over the next few years.

The plans are part of a £500million budget cut for the taxpayer-funded corporation, Mr Davie said.

Speaking to BBC staff today, he added: "This is our moment to build a digital-first BBC. Something genuinely new, a Reithian organisation for the digital age, a positive force for the UK and the world.

"Independent, impartial, constantly innovating and serving all. A fresh, new, global digital media organisation which has never been seen before.

"Driven by the desire to make life and society better for our licence fee payers and customers in every corner of the UK and beyond.

"They want us to keep the BBC relevant and fight for something that in 2022 is more important than ever.

"To do that we need to evolve faster and embrace the huge shifts in the market around us."

Beloved children's shows such as Blue Peter and Newsround will continue as digital first brands for the first time.

BBC Four, which is home to BBC Proms, BBC Young Dancer and BBC Young Musician, was launched in 2002 .

The BBC has not confirmed whether BBC Four, CBBC and Radio 4 Extra would move online to the iPlayer service.

BBC World News and the BBC News channel will also merge to create a single 24-hour TV news channel for UK and global viewers.

The channel, which will be called BBC News, will "offer greater amounts of shared content"

Viewers will have the option of separating broadcasts depending on what is happening in the UK and around the world.

The shake up comes despite the corporation recently bringing BBC3 back as a linear channel.

The BBC was forced to claw back a further £285million after it was announced in January that the licence fee will be frozen at £159 for the next two years.

There have already been rounds of redundancies over the past decade to keep costs up.