Former Countryfile presenter Miriam O'Reilly has won her employment tribunal against the BBC on the grounds of age discrimination.
The award-winning journalist, who is 53, reportedly won the age victimisation claim against the BBC following a decision to drop her from the show, which is produced in Birmingham, in advance of a move to a Sunday evening slot.
She is understood to have lost her claim for sex discrimination.
O'Reilly was "devastated" when she was told in November 2008 that she was being dropped after eight years of working for the show as a freelance, the central London employment tribunal was told.
Three other female Countryfile presenters aged over 40 - Michaela Strachan, 42, Juliet Morris, 45, and Charlotte Smith, 44 - were also axed alongside O'Reilly.
The 10-day tribunal in November heard allegations that O'Reilly was warned to be "careful with those wrinkles when high definition comes in", asked whether it was "time for Botox" and offered a can of black spray dye to cover up a white gap on her head.
The programme relaunched in April 2009 with Julia Bradbury, then 38, and former Blue Peter presenter Matt Baker, then 30, along with veteran broadcaster John Craven, 68, who was kept on for a slot called John Craven Investigates.
It was also announced that they would be supported by presenters Adam Henson, James Wong, Jules Hudson and Katie Knapman.
The BBC denied the claims brought by O'Reilly and insisted that she had been dropped because she lacked the necessary peak-time television presenting experience.
A BBC spokesman said: "We have just received the findings of the tribunal and are considering the full details. The BBC accepts the findings."
The high-profile tribunal heard evidence from former BBC One controller Jay Hunt, 43, who described claims that the four women had been dropped from the programme because she "hated women" as "entirely and categorically untrue".
The senior executive, who has since taken up the post of chief creative officer at Channel 4, said the BBC One audience was predominantly over 55 and female, and it was "important" and "entirely appropriate that they use "older female authority figures" in peak time.
Notable examples, she said, of her work to boost older women were those of Anne Robinson, brought back to Watchdog in its "peak", and actor Sheila Hancock on the Saturday night hit show Over The Rainbow, she said.
O'Reilly, although an extremely talented television reporter, was "completely unknown to a peak-time audience" and did not have the "skill level" to be taken forward, she claimed.
Ms Hunt later told the tribunal that, since the changes brought in to the programme, the audience had leaped to an average of 5.4 million compared with 1.8 million in its daytime slot.
The claims by O'Reilly came after Ms Hunt was subject to criticism in 2009 over the replacement of 66-year-old Arlene Phillips with 30-year-old Alesha Dixon as a Strictly Come Dancing judge.