Dermot Murnaghan defects to Sky News

"Dermot will carry on presenting the programme until the end of his current contract, in December"

I suspect that any rival broadcaster wanting to poach BBC presenters will just have to get out the chequebook - as the Beeb can't be seen to get into a talent bidding war in the current state of affairs.

More from Media Guardian and Metro..

Guardian

Metro who suggest other presenters are set to follow suit!

Yes there is that side to it, I wonder what if any deal was proposed to those two. At the time they started they were touted as bright stars of tv news but never lived up to it and have left with a whimper. What a difference to the autumn of 2002 !

Pushing Breakfast well ahead of GMTV in the ratings is hardly "leaving with a whimper"...

I meant the style of the departure , compared to the hype of when they started noggin.

Your loyalty to them is very touching considering they havn't shown any.

LOL!

Oh come on, he had no option really did he? There is no promotion for him in News, and after 5 years of Breakfast, it is long overdue. Look at Sophie, Natasha, they were all given promotions. With the cutbacks etc, and changes ahead, I for one would be looking out for number one.

The thing that strikes me, thinking about it, is that at the time Dermot left ITV News to join Breakfast at the BBC, one suggested reason was that he didn't want to have to do stints on the ITV News channel (once it had become ITV branded and presented by ITV rather than ITN "faces")

He is now leaving a bulletin based job at the BBC to present on a rolling news channel...

How times change.

I wonder how many other presenters will jump ship if offered more money by rivals. The BBC can afford to play the "developing new talent card" to a degree - but if this causes them to start losing viewers then that can only weaken the long term case for the licence fee.

I am being too critical but it's just the rubbish timing of this . It looks bad and it is squalid that just when the bbc is taking some major blows they jump ship. On a lighter note do you think the Time Trumpet p take on him ( & his ex co presenter) had some effect on his decision ?

I just remembered something else, he had a flight on one of the last Concorde flights courtesy of the bbc.

I hope he hosts SNT with Julie. Here slot is the worst in the schedule right now.

I do love the holier than thou attitude of some members on here, ask yourself this, aside from not getting promotion, if you worked somewhere where you COULD lose your job and another company offered you another job, you would do whats best for you and your family.
BBC won't be showing any loyalty to staff members when they make these job cuts so why should the presenters?

It's an inevitability in any organisation when redundancies are announced that those who are best at their jobs and therefore have the best chance of getting work elsewhere will jump ship first, leaving a less talented workforce.

It's a shame the BBC have lost Dermot. He's a good broadcaster, although I think he'd have been more suited to straight bulletins than Breakfast.

Yes - this is certainly the case for freelancers.

It is slightly different for staff - as the BBC will almost certainly not allow everyone who wants to leave to leave with voluntary redundancy (and a nice fat pay off AND work to go to), nor is it likely to allow everyone who wants to stay to stay.

If redundancy wasn't an issue - you'd be dead right. However as management will control who on staff is made redundant - either through voluntary or compulsory means - then this distorts things.

Two ways of looking at it :

Staff who are good at their jobs and know they could get work elsewhere will want to leave - and take voluntary redundancy. However the BBC will want to retain talented staff so will not want them to go...

Management will want to get rid of poor performing staff - and select them for compulsory redundancy. However these staff may be aware that they are unlikely to easily find freelance work or jobs elsewhere so will not want to leave.

Balancing these two will be interesting for management - they will have to manage (not something the BBC is historically very good at)