The BBC is to “dramatically scale back” its coverage of the Edinburgh Festival this year, according to a report in The Herald.

As a result, the pop-up venue that the BBC has operated at the Festival for fourteen years will not return, with the broadcaster instead recording programmes at the Pleasance Courtyard and EICC.

That pop-up venue – which was based at various sites around Edinburgh over the years, most recently at the Dynamic Earth visitor attraction – provided a hub where the BBC could record programmes, both Festival-specific coverage but also editions of its regular shows recorded in front of a Fringe audience.

The BBC’s output from the Festival provides an important awareness boost for the performers who appear in its programmes, but also for Edinburgh’s summer festivals more generally.

Confirming that the broadcaster’s presence at the Festival will be reduced this year, a BBC spokesperson told The Herald, “The BBC works within an increasingly competitive marketplace and tight budget constraints”.

“We have to make tough decisions to ensure we are delivering value for money”, they added, “which inevitably means evolving our offer accordingly whilst remaining committed to covering the Edinburgh festivals across all platforms”.

However, the spokesperson was also keen to stress that the BBC will still be active at the Festival, even if it is less prolific. “Our coverage will include ticketed events for audiences to attend recordings and live broadcasts of BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 4 shows”, they said.

Plus the special ‘Edinburgh Unlocked’ programme will return to the BBC Scotland channel hosted by Mark Nelson, “giving audiences a backstage pass to all the best of the Fringe and the wider festivals”.

And “we will also continue to provide special reports from the Edinburgh festivals across news TV, radio and online throughout August”.