THE BBC has ended a partnership with the Met Office dating back more than 90 years by deciding not to renew its contract to provide weather forecasts.
The last bulletin presented by the Met Office will be broadcast in October 2016, 94 years after the first, in November 1922.
Bill Giles, who led the Met Office’s team of BBC forecasters from 1983 to 2000, was among those in shock at the decision. “It’s a hell of a shame. It’s the end of an era,” he said.
The loss of the contract, worth an estimated £3m a year, was confirmed by the Met Office, which said: “We’re disappointed to hear that we won’t be supplying weather presenters and graphics to the BBC in the future.”
Steve Noyes, its operations and customer services director, added: “Nobody knows Britain’s weather better and during our long relationship with the BBC we’ve revolutionised weather communication to make it an integral part of British daily life.”
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The BBC will announce a replacement before the end of the year. It declined to discuss why it had decided to break with the Met Office. “Our viewers get the highest standard of weather service and that won’t change,” the corporation said.
“We are legally required to go through an open tender process . . . to make sure we secure both the best possible service and value for money for the licence-fee payer.”
The BBC expects most of the 19-strong national presenting team, including Alex Deakin and John Hammond, to stay on air by transferring from Met Office employment to the new provider. Carol Kirkwood, the weather presenter for BBC1’s Breakfast and a contestant in Strictly Come Dancing, is a BBC employee.
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The BBC will continue to broadcast severe weather warnings from the Met Office, which also provides a public service of daily pollen and UV forecasts. The new supplier may buy in forecasts from the Met Office but then broadcast them under its own name.
The Met Office survived a competitive tender five years ago when it saw off a bid from Metra, a New Zealand rival.
Giles claimed there had been a decline since the weather unit was merged into the BBC’s news division 15 years ago and that it had lacked a powerful champion after he left and his post was downgraded.
The current forecasters do not have the following of predecessors such as John Kettley, Ian McCaskill and Rob McElwee who became household names through regular peak-time exposure.
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Noyes was defiant, stating that the Met Office was “ranked No 1 in the world for forecast accuracy” and would continue to offer its services to other broadcasters.
After a BBC announcer first read a script prepared by the Met Office in 1922 the relationship developed with daily radio bulletins from March 1923.
A low point for the Met Office came in 1987, ahead of the worst storm to hit the UK for almost 300 years, when Michael Fish assured viewers: “A woman rang the BBC and said she’d heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you’re watching, don’t worry, there isn’t.”
He later insisted that he had been referring to a tropical cyclone that did not make it to our shores.
Giles said: “We built up from nothing to the world’s No 1. This is a hell of a leap and if it doesn’t work there will be no way back.”