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The BBC is to close down BBC 2W in the run-up to digital switchover as part of plans to achieve 3% annual efficiencies at BBC Wales.

The channel launched in November 2001 and was designed to offer "a unique experience unavailable anywhere else with the watchwords of topicality and style, intelligence with an occasional touch of irreverence, shining through" for Welsh audiences.

Today, BBC Wales controller Menna Richards said: "Once Wales goes digital, we will not be able to sustain two different versions of BBC Two. Therefore, BBC 2W - BBC Wales' digital-only service - will come to an end in the run-up to digital switchover in 2009, with BBC Two Wales being carried across all digital platforms from that point. We need to offer just one service, and that needs to be the very best of both network and BBC Wales television."

BBC Wales is facing job cuts of between 145 and 155 over the next five years.