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Media
BBC digital services may as yet go to meet cost cutting demands
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 13 January 2011
The boss of the BBC Trust, Michael Lyons, has warned that some of the BBC’s digital-only services may have to be axed in order for the Corporation to adapt to the upcoming budget cuts caused by a fixed (ie, not inflation proof) licence fee and the Beeb taking on other general broadcasting related costs. Forcing economies across all BBC services will not save enough money, Lyons says, in an open letter to BBC Director General Mark Thompson, published the day before the DG is due to address his staff about upcoming cutbacks.
Lyons repeated a mantra that has been used with increased frequency in senior BBC circles of late, that the Corporation should be doing “fewer things better”. Amongst the “fewer things” Lyons reckons the Beeb should be focusing on are BBC1, BBC2, Radio 1 and Radio 2. The Trust man made no mention of the organisation’s digital services, leading some to speculate some of those might have to go in order to reduce operating costs. Although that could mean a new threat to radio services like 6music, some insiders now thing it’s the digital TV stations BBC3 and BBC4 which are possibly most at risk.
Of course the BBC’s commercial rivals would probably argue the Beeb should be concentrating more on niche digital services and less on those channels – like BBC 1, Radio 1 and Radio 2 – which compete head on with commercial TV and radio stations. And while some downsizing of the Corporation’s channel portfolio is probably inevitable, many commercial operators would argue that the likes of Radio 1 are already vastly over-staffed and over-funded, and are actually the most obvious targets for dramatic cost cutting.
