BBC NEWS CUTS

As depressing as it is to be discussing where the axe should fall, I completely agree with some of the posters that the news channel needs to go. BBC News has been asked to save £80m. Amazingly, they’re actually already almost halfway there with cuts behind the scenes. The next round announced next week will involve savings of £40m. How much does the BBC News Channel cost per year? £44m. It’s fairly straight forward!

But it was said in the article that half of the £80M had already been saved meaning this round is the other half of the savings (i.e £40 Million).

Samira Ahmed to present the 6. Carrie Gracie to present the 10. I’m sure they’ll be able to make savings by paying them less than their predecessors.

Some BBC observations not just limited to news (which I'm more than happy for people to disagree with):

-I do find it odd that some of CBBC is broadcast while their viewers would surely be at school. Would it maybe make sense for BBC News to take those hours (say 9am-3pm) which means there'd still be a significant news offering in the daytime. Cbeebies is slightly different given it's a much younger audience.

-I can't say I'm sure what 5 Live is meant to be these days. In theory it's meant to be a rolling news and sports radio station. It still does the latter very well and while you do want a variety of programming you can't really call it a rolling news station when you have the likes of Laura Whitmore, Scott Mills (I like both but you wouldn't a story breaking with them on air) and Nihal and Sarah Brett's incredibly lightweight shows.
Is there an argument maybe to, as messy as it sounds, in theory to combine 5 Live and the News Channel's daytime and late evening operations - to give 5 Live some gravitas and ability to handle rolling news and diversify the news channel output a bit.

-Similarly if we're looking at radio stations, 1Xtra feels the sort of thing the commercial sector could provide and Radio 4 Extra similarly feels a bit superfluous.

-With the News Channel I can't say I've ever really got the 5. If Huw's not anchoring it, it's essentially somebody being brought in to present one hour that really isn't that different from the others. Feels a bit of luxury that the BBC maybe can't afford these days.

-Speaking of that, it's been mentioned many a time but bringing in a separate newsreader to do the weekend evening bulletin again feels a bit of a luxury. The content isn't that different (if at all) from what's on the News Channel all day plusit's an additional presenter to pay and most of the News Channel presenters are perfectly capable of anchoring a bulletin. And I know there's the preparation argument but at weekends the back half-hours are mostly recorded programs or don't involve the on-duty presenter plus currently there's a 90 minute block from 8.30-10 where seemingly however big a domestic story is, the on-duty presenter won't be used. So combine that all and that's considerable preparation time for a 15-20 minute bulletin

I get what you mean about most of their audience not watching during 9am to 3pm but why put BBC News in that slot?

Closing SD channels would be a long overdue start. It means the BBC can dispose of one of their muxes of Freeview and I think even though it means getting the regions in HD on satellite, cutting the SD versions provides most the space and they're only hemorraging money by delaying the inevitable. Any "efficiency savings" needs to be about adding value as well, rather than just making cuts - although with that said some opt-outs may need to be sacrificed rather than having a full HD channel for a 5-minute a day opt out.


If we were being brutal (and perhaps they'd need to be) I'd cut down to 4 linear channels - BBC1, BBC2, a rebranded BBC3 (probably BBC4 renamed) and I would keep BBC News at the 4th. Live streams of Parliament and all red button streams would be internet only through the red button.

CBeebies becomes a timeshare with BBC2 (till 6pm weekdays, 12noon weekends - as popular as it is the bedtime hour probably has to go as a linear format) and CBBC with the new BBC3 (till 7pm). Where a second adult channel is needed in daytime CBeebies becomes 6-12noon and CBBC from 12noon-7pm. BBC Scotland becomes a regional version of the new BBC3 and perhaps the same happens in Wales and NI with BBC2 being networked and optouts going on BBC3.


That is being brutal though and a worst case scenario for the BBC to move forward. Arguably rather than timeshares axing CBBC and CBeebies as channels and having their content as blocks on BBC2/3 would give them most flexibility - that would be far from ideal but might be necessary.


In terms of the news channel only I wouldn't like to see it axed but by simulcasting all BBC1/2 content and perhaps going to a news wheel rather than rolling news format at certain points savings could be made and a service still provided.

I think the reason for keeping 1Xtra is that it appeals to an audience that the BBC otherwise finds hard to reach, and doesn't consume any other BBC content. I recall this was the argument in 2010 for keeping 1Xtra and axing 6 Music, even though 1Xtra had lower listening figures. Meanwhile Radio 4 Extra, along with 6 Music, has been one of the key drivers to the take-up of digital radio, and is one of the cheapest of the BBC national stations to run.

If we're going to go off cuts to News then drop MOTD .

IIRC that's about £70m a year currently and to be honest since it is such a visible cut should bring home to a lot of people you can't expect cuts to BBC funding and everything stays the same .

I'd drop BBC4 and put all that stuff back on BBC2, to make 2 do what it was set out to do to start with. BBC2 has become a lifestyle channel whereas what it used to do is now on BBC4. It's a ridiculous situation.

BBC1, BBC2, BBC News / Parliament. That's all they need to be - and bring back children's TV to BBC1.

Yeah the BBC are going to dump their most watched show and brand with men.... I'm sure they'll understand

Nobody mentioned top gear?

Yes because it still is 1992.....