BBC chief Thompson 'puts quality first' as he outlines plans for BBC
BBC chief Thompson 'puts quality first' as heMark Thompson, director general of the BBC, has today confirmed plans to cut BBC Online’s budget by a quarter in the next three years and close radio stations BBC 6 Music and Asian Network. He said this is part of a move to "put quality first".
Thompson’s announcement this morning was preempted by media reports last week when the proposals were leaked to the Times. The proposed changes will now be subject to a 12-week public consultation by the BBC Trust.
Although the closures of 6 Music and Asian Network have grabbed the most headlines, teen services such as Switch and Blast could also be axed, with Thompson admitting that rival broadcaster Channel 4 should lead the way with that audience.
Thompson has promised 90p of every £1 paid through the licence fee will be spent on programming which would see an extra £600m added in to the programming budget. This would come at the expense of 6 Music and Asian Network, which would both close by the end of 2011 at the earliest.
Thompson said: "The proposed changes we are announcing today are not a piece of politics. It is also not a blueprint of a small BBC or a BBC that is in retreat from digital."
Last week media analyst Paul Richards told The Drum he thought the cuts being made by Thompson were ‘a very sensible move’ and would be welcomed by the commercial broadcasting sector.
But the proposals - especially the closure of 6 Music - have not been widely welcomed by the public. Save6music has become a trending hashtag on Twitter and more than 85,000 people have joined a Facebook group to show their support for the station.
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Comments
‘put quality first’
Has anyone actually heard Radio 1 these days? Wow - shockingly bad.
Shame as 6music was and still is a great music station. Sad.
I couldn't care less if 6 Music and the Asian network get the boot. Don't most people just log into Spotify or the like now, and then they can choose what and when to listen to, without some bloody awful DJ yabbering on? Don't get me wrong, I like the music being played on 6 Music, but there is so many other places where it can be found.
Yeah Radio 1 is a bit crap, but it's popular. If 6 music and the Asian network had as many listeners, then they wouldn't be getting scrapped. I feel sorry for all the people who'll lose their jobs though, but they've got until the end of 2011 to find a new one...
A scandalous decision and, judges by the forces being mobilised on Facebook, one they're going to regret.
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