The BBC flagship sports show Grandstand is to be scrapped after nearly half a century.
The Director-General, Mark Thompson will announce the change today when he gives details of a review of BBC output.
The BBC said the programme, which has run for 48 years, will be phased out by 2009 as part of an overhaul of coverage but that sports will still be shown on Saturday afternoons.
The project is aimed at making sure the BBC's programming and content meets the challenges of the digital, on-demand world.
Sports programming on Saturday afternoon originally ran within Grandstand, but in recent years coverage has been broken down into individual programme segments, such as Football Focus.
This year's coverage of the Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games were shown without the Grandstandbanner.
Grandstandhas been presented by the likes of Frank Bough, David Coleman, Des Lynam and Steve Rider.
Lynam said: "I'm saddened in many ways but the decision was inevitable.
"In the 50s and 60s, people were prepared to sit down and watch live action for four or five hours no matter what it was. But those days are gone. In a multi-channel age, if people are going to watch live sport, it has to be a pretty big event."
PA