A huge blow to dads who pretend they’ve won the lottery to their quickly disappointed and bitter family: the Saturday National Lottery Live draw is being dropped from BBC1.

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From January, the live draw (a BBC1 mainstay since 1994) will instead be aired on iPlayer, with the winning numbers also announced after news bulletins at intervals during the week.

The move follows the BBC's former Wednesday night Lottery show, which was ditched back in 2012.

Tim Copper, Digital Director of Lotto operator Camelot, said of the switch: "As consumer habits show an unrelenting shift towards digital platforms, we're embracing these changes in players' results-checking habits – providing content that they can access at all times, across multiple different touch-points.”

"But it's also great that we can continue to provide a service to those loyal BBC1 viewers who want their lottery results available at a regular time as they enjoy their favourite BBC shows."

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The BBC told RadioTimes.com in a statement: "The BBC is committed to broadcasting the National Lottery with results on BBC1 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays in a regular slot after the News as well as on the BBC iPlayer and online from January 2017."

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