BBC ends 50 year era of A Question Of Sport as production axed on quiz stalwart

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The broadcaster is blaming ‘inflation and funding challenges’

The BBC says it has benched long-running quiz show A Question Of Sport, ending a more than 50-year run on the national broadcaster.

A BBC spokesman said: “Due to inflation and funding challenges, difficult decisions have to be made, therefore Question of Sport is currently not in production at the moment.”

The national broadcaster cited “value for money” for BBC licence fee payers, which has seen the network reshuffle its squad of shows to prioritise high-impact content that drives viewers to BBC iPlayer.

A BBC source advised that this is not the final whistle for the programme, which first aired in 1970.

The suspension of A Question Of Sport comes after Sue Barker was dropped as a presenter in 2020, alongside long-running team captains Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell.

Paddy McGuinness took over the hosting gig alongside team captains Sam Quek and Ugo Monye, but their tenure only lasted two seasons.

The move also follows the broadcaster announcing last month that long-running motoring show Top Gear would be rested “for the foreseeable future”.

Production of the show had been halted since former England cricket captain Flintoff, 45, was taken to hospital in December 2022 after he was injured in an accident at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.

Published: 16/12/2023 by Radio NewsHub

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Taxes and borrowing are both set to increase as Rachel Reeves signalled she would rewrite the way Government debt is measured in her first Budget. The Chancellor said she faced difficult choices but insisted her Budget would “begin to fix the NHS and start to rebuild our economy”. The cost of Government borrowing increased in response to speculation the Chancellor would change debt rules to spend billions more on investments. Tory former chancellor Jeremy Hunt said increased borrowing could increase the cost of mortgages for hundreds of thousands of households. During a round of broadcast interviews while attending the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington DC, Ms Reeves confirmed a technical change in the way she would measure progress against the target of managing debt. Writing in the Financial Times, Ms Reeves said her fiscal rules would be “the rock of stability at the core of my Budget”. Labour’s 2024 election manifesto said Ms Reeves would follow two rules: The current budget would be in balance so that day-to-day costs are met by revenues. The second rule is that debt must be falling as a share of the economy by the fifth year of the economic forecast. On Thursday she confirmed that the way debt is measured as part of that target would be changed to allow greater flexibility. Ms Reeves said: “My fiscal rules will do two things. The first and most important: my stability rule will mean that day-to-day spending will be matched by revenues. “Given the state of the public finances and the need to invest in our public services, this rule will bite hardest. “Alongside tough decisions on spending and welfare, that means taxes will need to rise to ensure this rule is met. 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BBC ends 50 year era of A Question Of Sport as production axed on quiz stalwart

The broadcaster is blaming ‘inflation and funding challenges’

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World on track for catastrophic 31C of global warming this century UN warns

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