Leading BBC journalists are in revolt at the decision to cut the length of the News at Ten bulletin by 10 minutes and give the time over to youth programming.

Well-known on-screen names including the Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, and other leading foreign correspondents have written to the BBC director general, Tony Hall, and urged him to reconsider.

The decision to cut the length was announced to staff on Monday, in an attempt to convince younger audiences to tune in to BBC One broadcasts by showing BBC Three highlights instead of a longer news programme.

Bowen declined to comment on the message he had sent to the director general, saying it was a private communication, but said: “We all want the BBC to be the best it can be”, adding: “To that end we have plenty of internal debates about what’s happening.”

Hall held a discussion with staff on Tuesday, in which he adopted a “hardline” stance on the changes.

“Tony has received letters from some of the biggest names in news on screen,” said one BBC news source. “This unsettled him because he came down yesterday and talked to the team.”

“It’s caused a huge amount of disquiet and anger,” they added, suggesting the BBC’s director of content, Charlotte Moore, had won an internal battle with Fran Unsworth, the head of news. “We feel that news hasn’t put up a strong enough fight.”

The move comes amid continued speculation over Unsworth’s future, as the BBC grapples with various challenges such as the growth of Netflix and the decline in youth audiences.

The changes will see the main national news bulletin reduced from 31.5 minutes to 26.5 minutes every night while, in a tough blow for the regions, local news and weather will be cut from 11 minutes a night to seven.

The change is intended to provide an earlier slot to showcase programmes from BBC Three, the youth channel which went online-only in 2016.

BBC news sources said they did not believe the decision to shorten the News at Ten had been designed to cut costs but reflected a genuine belief by executives that younger viewers would return to watching live television if relevant programming were shown in an earlier timeslot.

“The rationale for what they’re doing is not convincing,” said one News at Ten insider. “There is no evidence that asking people to watch stuff at 10.35 at night rather than 10.45 will make a difference.”

Last week, figures by Enders Analysis showed that the average time spent by 16- to 34-year-olds watching live TV broadcasts fell 13% in the last 12 months, almost all of which was attributed to the growth in popularity of streaming services.

The schedule change will come into effect from the start of March, just a few weeks before Britain leaves the EU. It could be a boost for BBC Two’s Newsnight, which currently clashes with the main news bulletin.

News at Ten was extended to its current timeslot in 2015, with BBC bosses saying the decision would give “more scope to explain the events that impact the country and help to make sense of the changing world around us” and that audience research showed viewers “want more from our evening news service”.

A spokesperson said: “We believe the return to our original schedule will better suit all our audiences. The award-winning News at Ten will continue to bring high-quality reporting of the day’s news to our audiences, who will be able to switch immediately afterwards to our other flagship evening news programme, Newsnight, avoiding the current scheduling clash. Audiences can also access BBC news on our 24-hour news channel, our news app, online, and on radio.”