The BBC is to close down half its website, cut spending on imported American programmes and close two radio stations in an admission that it has become too large, a newspaper reported today. The Times said that in a strategic review to be unveiled next month, the corporation will concede it must give space to its commercial rivals which have been hard hit by an advertising downturn during the recession.
The BBC regularly comes under fire from rivals and other critics for its alleged unfair dominance. Its Director-General Mark Thompson will announce a cut in its website pages by half, backed by a 25 percent cut in staff and budget, said the paper. It will further close digital radio stations 6 Music and Asian Network and close outlets that target the teenage market, leaving the area free for rivals. And it will order its commercial subsidiary BBC Worldwide to focus on activities overseas and get rid of its British magazines arm.
The report, which is being considered by the BBC’s governing body, will be seen as an attempt to show a future Conservative government that the corporation does not need outside intervention to solve its problems, said The Times. The Conservative party, tipped to win the next general election and traditionally more hostile towards the BBC than the current Labour administration, is expected to freeze the licence fee.
The BBC review comes as all media are struggling to adapt to rapidly changing technology and markets, and some - notably Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp - are pledging to end the era of free news online.
(Source: AFP)
The BBC issued a press statement at 4.00pm today:
“Last summer, the BBC Trust challenged the BBC to develop a new strategy to meet the opportunities and the threats of the rapidly changing media landscape. Although the details have yet to be agreed – and today’s press speculation is therefore premature – the BBC expects to present its proposals to the BBC Trust in the near future.
“At the core of the strategy will be a renewed commitment to serving the British public with programmes and services of the highest quality. Audiences admire and value the BBC’s digital services and the BBC will remain fully committed to online and to digital television and radio. But the new strategy will lay out ways of focusing and concentrating licence fee investment on areas and services which are distinctive and best fulfil the BBC’s public purposes, which meet the expectations of licence-payers but also leave plenty of space for commercial media providers.”
Andy Sennitt comments: It’s interesting that the press statement calls the press report ‘premature’ rather than ‘wrong’ or ‘inaccurate’. There have been frequent reports in the past few months that both 6 Music and the Asian Network were to be closed. To the best of my knowledge, the BBC has not specifically denied either of these claims. Media Guardian is also now carrying essentially the same story.
on Feb 26th, 2010 at 12:52
A half of which website are they closing? In recent years BBC have launched such a multitude of sites that perhaps even the management doesn’t know for sure how many they’re running right now.
Arguably, the UK finances aren’t much better than those of Greece. So it’s about time that ‘leaner and meaner’ mantra should apply to BBC, too. Personally, I’m all for cutting down the non-essential services.
on Feb 26th, 2010 at 15:37
So how friendly will the Conservatives be to the BBC World Service? Because of the funding issue, radio is increasingly divorced from the commercially funded TV and on-line.
on Feb 26th, 2010 at 20:45
As a UK taxpayer, it is hard to disagree with much of this. 6 Music seems to emit nothing which cannot be found on several commercial radio stations and hundreds of internet channels. Some have defended it for broadcasting and publicising innovative modern music, but on checking their website this evening I find that all the track samples are loaded from another website (MusicBrainz). What is the role of the publicly funded BBC here? Why cannot interested listeners just go straight to that other website?
I would offer a lukewarm defence of Asian Network. I do not listen to it myself, but I can see that it does seem to offer a service targeting a certain radio audience which is not well catered for elsewhere in the UK outside London. It is reasonable for a publicly funded body to cater for that audience.
The BBC digital output that I would close overnight is 1Xtra. A special station for “black music”?? This is the most over-represented style of music on radio these days. There is no conceivable role for the taxpayers-funded BBC here. Close it down. Now.
on Feb 26th, 2010 at 20:52
….on checking their website this evening I find that all the track samples are loaded from another website (MusicBrainz)…
And now (a few minutes later) I discover from the faqs on the BBC website that the 6 Music “artist biographies” are taken from Wikipedia. Again I ask, what is the role of the publicly-funded BBC here?
on Feb 26th, 2010 at 21:25
Closing 6music is a ridiculous idea; there is not a single commercial radio station anywhere in the UK that has a similar playlist. 6Music is exactly the sort of station the BBC should be running - dedicated to music that isn\’t heard elsewhere.
If the BBC is so afraid of offending commercial radio and moving into their turf, then it is Radio 1 and Radio 2 that should be in the firing line. They directly compete with commercial stations and they have very expensive \’stars\’ on their lineup who don\’t really provide much value. They could run a dozen 6Music stations just by culling Chris Moyles.
on Feb 27th, 2010 at 09:57
Radio 6 has a budget of 6.7 million Euro and attracts 700,000 listeners a week. I see that Absolut Radio has offered to buy the station and run the same format on half the budget. I think they could do it. Some parts of the Beeb are truly brilliant, but others are terribly overtstaffed. Just look at the corporation\’s structure.
on Feb 27th, 2010 at 15:23
I agree that the BBC plays a lot of “black” and “young” music on 1 Xtra and on Radio 1 and that this is duplicated on a lot of commercial stations.
But I am an oldie. What about me? I would like a Radio 2 Xtra with at least some daily opt-outs. Quite cheap to run. I am probably in the lest digitised demographic so, in addition, a few hours a day on 198khz Long Wave could effectively be used for this. There’s not much of my sort of wrinkly stuff anywhere around! 1 Xtra and 6 Music could be like 5Live Sports Extra, and reduced to opt-outs of a few hours a day if BBC hasn’t got the bottle to close them completely.
on Feb 27th, 2010 at 16:11
Agree with Paul that sttaion like 1 and 2 can be done by commercial parties, like her radio 2 and 3.
And Jonathan is right that many opeartions can be done much cheaper, not necesaaraly by a commercial station.
So axing - BBC =commercial= sttaions- and inefficiency can do the trick, and might even satisfy the Conservatives.
on Feb 27th, 2010 at 22:00
Just axe Jonathan Ross instead of 6 Music ! They reportedly cost the same.
Sorted !
on Feb 28th, 2010 at 08:54
It looks to me as though Radio6 music will be the bargaining chip - kept but with a more sensible budget and perhaps trimming elsewhere like Radio1xtra.
I think they have already axed Jonathan Ross in the plans.
on Feb 28th, 2010 at 13:00
I am rather amused to read the blog by Neil Midgley, the Daily Telegraph’s Assistant Editor (Media). He has worked out that the spending cuts leaked so far amount to 0.78 percent of the BBC’s total budget
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/neilmidgley/100004039/so-the-bbc-is-to-shrink-by-0-78/
on Mar 1st, 2010 at 02:24
Yes; the Telegraph article spells it out as it is and even more pointed is one of the comments : “Only 99.22% to go then!!”
Absolutely. How much better off we would be with modern day versions of ABC Weekend Television, Radio London and Radio 390 - all of which cost us nothing. Oh well; one can dream. However, hopefully the Conservatives won’t be duped by this BBC cosmetics exercise.