BBC News presenters will have to fight to save their jobs in screen tests as 14 hosts face getting the boot.
More than a dozen presenters could lose their positions due to a rebrand which will see BBC News and BBC World News channels merged, reports say.
Household names such as Ben Brown, Joanna Gosling and Martine Croxall could be affected.
The move means there will be no dedicated domestic news service for viewers in the UK from the spring.
According to the i newspaper, there will be just five presenting positions on the BBC News Channel under the plans and current hosts asked to undergo a studio-based “practical test” lasting 40 minutes.
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Those who fail to impress could face being sacked.
Brown, 62, joined the broadcaster in 1988 while Gosling, 51, has been a BBC presenter for 23 years and Croxall, 53, for more than 30 years.
In October 2022, Croxall was temporarily taken off air after she sparked fury for appearing to laugh at a joke about Boris Johnson.
Ms Croxall was presenting The Papers when she chuckled at a gag about the former PM ruling himself out of the Tory leadership race.
High-profile presenters including Huw Edwards, Fiona Bruce and Clive Myrie are thought to have been spared having to re-apply.
The BBC is expecting to save more than £1million a year by cutting the numbers of presenters.
The broadcaster hopes to find new roles for some of those affected.
The merged channel will broadcast from London in the daytime and Singapore and Washington at other times.
The BBC declined to comment on the screen tests when approached by The Sun Online.
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