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Major BBC cutback: bold stroke or a cunning plan?
Times claims BBC is to cut its website by half, lose two radio stations and reduce US imports like ‘Mad Men’
Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, is set to announce that the corporation will close two radio stations, cut its website operation by half, reduce spending on imported American programmes, and restrict spending on sports events to £300 million, or 8.5 per cent of the licence fee.
The claim is made by the Times today, citing BBC Trust sources. A spokesman for the corporation refused to comment on what she termed "speculation".
The overhaul of services is said to reflect thinking within the corporation that it must shrink to give its commercial rivals hit by the advertising recession room to operate.
Thompson is expect to announce the closure of the digital radio stations 6 Music and Asian Network as well as BBC Switch and Blast!. The proposals were reportedly drafted by the corporations director of policy and strategy John Tate, co-author of the Conservative party's 2005 manifesto.
The Times believes the cuts are designed to show to an incoming Tory government it understands the effect the recession has
had on commercial rivals and that it does not need outside intervention.
The cuts should free up £600 million that can be re-directed toward making higher-quality content at BBC2 and elsewhere. Tate has also proposed a minimum 25 per cent reduction in the BBC's £100 million budget for foreign acquisitions, potentially curbing expensive imported US drama fare like Mad Men.
On the website front, the plan is to reduce the current pages by half, though the staffing and budget would be reduced by only a quarter. Of most interest to rival news publishers, whether independents like The First Post or major newspaper websites, there would be a policy of including more links to other news sites.
Some commentators believe the BBC is setting a smokescreen and that it is still bloated and self-serving. The Times notes the cutbacks "look like a welcome recognition that the empire has gone too far, and should focus back on quality programming. But they actually constitute an evasive and artful strategy designed to keep the next government from intervening, while in reality changing very little."
The best way to reform, it says, "would be to make a substantial cut to the licence fee and give money back to people to spend as they like." Like, it is obvious to say, spending it to plump up News Corp, the Times's parent. ·
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Talk of cuts? In half or quarters? Will they be hung first? What is the point of the BBC anyway - who wants to pay a TV licence tax? Forced to pay for the BBC if you only ever watch Corrie and Sky Films? Why? So you can be indoctrinated by the government's tame poodle puppy media slush funded loonie lefties, that's why.