BBC warns London 2012 may hit BBC One news bulletins

The BBC has admitted that its extensive planned coverage of the London Olympics this summer could result in some editions of the 6pm and 10pm news bulletins on BBC One being cut back.

Live coverage of the games will be shown on BBC One and BBC Three, starting at 6am and running until midnight throughout the two-week event.

The corporation has already secured approval to extend digital channel BBC Three to a full-day schedule to accommodate the broadcast plans. It will also run 24 live streams to meet its target of covering every event live at London 2012.

However, BBC executives warned the BBC Trust at a meeting last year that the ambitious plans for coverage of the Games and the Euro 2012 football tournament could result in the corporation missing its annual quota of flagship peaktime news programming on BBC One.

The Trust said that it would contact media regulator Ofcom about the situation, but urged the BBC to "do all it could to meet the quota without harming audience interests".

The BBC's governing body said that despite the national significance of the London Games and Euro 2012, news should have "top priority" on BBC One.

"The Trust accepted the recommendation of its Audiences and Performance Committee (APC) that the Trust should inform Ofcom of the possibility and circumstances in which BBC One's peaktime news quota might not be met in 2012, due to its coverage of the London Olympics and Euro 2012," said minutes of the meeting on November 17, published yesterday.

"The Trust agreed, however, that network and regional news should continue to have top priority in scheduling decisions on BBC One and the channel should do all it could to meet the quota without harming audience interests."

In a statement issued to The Guardian, a spokeswoman for BBC News said: "Clearly there are major sporting events happening in 2012 which could lead to scheduling changes but our commitment to bringing our audiences all the latest news and current affairs in peaktime remains as strong as ever."

The BBC is understood to have over-performed its news quota last year, delivering 278 hours of peaktime news on BBC One, above its 275-hour commitment.

Also at the meeting, the Trust agreed to approve the service licence for the launch of a special Olympics radio station for the duration of the Games.

BBC Radio 5 Live Olympics Extra will use temporary additional national radio spectrum on DAB to air live coverage of the Olympic events. The station is expected to cost around £200,000, subject to budget planning for the financial year 2012-13.

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