Sky News is reported to be looking to restructure how it presents sports bulletins and weather updates, resulting in the loss of a small number of jobs, mainly in the weather department.  It is rumoured that Francis Wilson, Sky's head of weather, who has been with the network for 17 years, is likely to bow out as a result of the restructuring.

Sky News' sports operation is likely to be wound down in favour of taking a feed from Sky Sports' news operation Sky Sports News, which operates as a stand alone channel in its own right.

Media Guardian reports:

"The change is understood to affect the presenting duties of Sky News veterans including Chris Skudder, who has covered the Olympics and last four World Cups, Nick Powell, and cricket specialist Charlie Thomas. The restructure is also understood to affect the position of Sky News sports editor Lee Wellings.

BSkyB would not provide details about who was affected by the restructure. But a Sky spokesman said that all employees affected would be offered new roles."

A BSkyB spokesperson told the Guardian: "To deliver an even better service for viewers, who recognise Sky Sports as a leader in sports broadcasting, Sky News has introduced greater editorial co-operation with Sky Sports News, including on-screen presence.  As part of this change four new roles have been created, which will be offered to those whose current positions will become redundant. No changes to overall levels of headcount are expected across the sports team."

On the weather front, all but two of Sky News' weather presenters will leave the network, leaving just two weather presenters for the Sunrise programme.  Instead, a new role of weather producer will be created to produce weather news for Sky's website and mobile offerings.

Again speaking to the Guardian newspaper, a spokesperson for Sky News said: "The way of presenting weather on TV hasn't fundamentally changed in 30 years.  Sky News is a multiplatform service and, as people choose to access weather information in different ways, we believe we can serve viewers better through a combination of headline forecasts from our news presenters and detailed information on our online and mobile services."