Former Prime Minister Helen Clark says trimming TVNZ's flagship news show in half would be tragic.

TVNZ has confirmed it is proposing to cut up to 68 roles.

Our newsroom understands about 35 are news roles.

It comes a week after Warner Brothers Discovery announced a proposal to scrap Newshub.

Clark says we'd barely get 14 minutes of news, then sport and the weather, and that just wouldn't cover it.

"You wouldn't carry much of a newsroom to fill a bulletin that literally would be 14 or 15 minutes worth of news- so I think that would be a sad day."

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