Closing the BBC News Desktop Alert and Ticker

This page explains the reasons for closing the desktop alert and ticker service and suggests other ways you can stay up-to-date.

Closing the BBC News & Sport Desktop Alert/Ticker Service

Example of BBC News alert

The BBC News and Sport Desktop ticker and alerts service has now closed and we're advising users to uninstall it from their PCs.

The desktop alerts product launched seven years ago and was initially installed by thousands of users onto their PCs. However, over the last couple of years, less people have been using the service and have instead turned to other products to be kept up-to-date with News and Sport stories and breaking news.

As announced in January, we are now focusing on delivering fewer products, and delivering them to a higher standard. The desktop alert and ticker has provided a good service over the years, however it does have its limitations and it would require a further investment to move it forwards.

Other ways to keep up-to-date

There are many other ways you can keep across BBC News and Sport updates, including:

• The desktop BBC News and Sport websites keeps you updated on both breaking and latest stories, via the ticker on the home pages.

• Our mobile service (for News and Sport) offers breaking news and you can also sign up for SMS alerts, so you're kept up-to-date when you're on the move.

• Our RSS feeds (News & Sport) are a really popular way to keep up-to-date as well.

• If you use the iGoogle service, our BBC News gadget is used by over 2.5 million people - and we'll be launching an updated version of it in the near future.

• If you use social networks, you can also follow BBC News on Twitter (by following @bbcbreaking) and you can 'like' us on Facebook as well.

Deciding to turn something off is never an easy decision, however we constantly monitor how our range of services are performing to assess their value for money. The desktop ticker and alert service is one product which we feel isn't being utilised enough and we will instead re-invest the money we spend licensing it on enhancing and developing other BBC Online services.

To uninstall, select the link provided within the alert window or go to the Add/Remove Programs section in the Control Panel and uninstall it from there (it should be called 'BBC Alerts').

If you have any problems with uninstalling it or feedback about this, please contact us using the form on NewsWatch.