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- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday May 9 2001 11.19 BST
Sky News has marked the first day of its election coverage with shock cutbacks that could affect up to 40 jobs.
Bosses have told journalists they are instigating a cost-cutting drive that will see most of the half-hour features programmes from its rolling news service axed over the next few weeks.
Programmes that will be affected include the business half hour programmes, Technofile and Showbiz Weekly.
A statement from BSkyB said: "Sky News management told its staff today of plans to focus all the channel's resources on live continuous news."
It added: "The production of some features and special programmes will come to an end within the next few weeks."
In particular the Sky News business unit, which was created only two years ago, is to be axed, less than a week after Adam Faith's Money Channel bit the dust.
A spokesman said that "net" redundancies would be "around ten posts", but insiders say initially there will be around 40 job losses.
He insisted that the cutbacks would not reduce the station's firepower during the election.
"We are shifting coverage away from features. As a result of the proposed changes we will have more reporters on the beat, not less," he said.
The move, on the eve of a general election, has raised eyebrows among broadcast journalists.
Insiders say that BSkyB management are beginning to feel the squeeze from the advertising downturn in the US.
Sky News is also feeling increased competition from the BBC's rolling news channel, News 24.
The news does not bode well for Sky News's bid - in partnership with Chrysalis, Ulster Television, Bloomberg and CBS - for the ITV news franchise.
The company however is under pressure as the losses for parent group BSkyB widen.
Today it announced pre-tax losses of £176.4m for the nine months to March this year, up from a £89.9m loss for the same period last year.
May 9: News Corp close to dealing DirecTV deal
May 9: Sky losses deepen
May 9:Sky delays analogue switch off
