The BBC is expected to outline future plans for its services and programmes in the coming month.
- Reports of various possible cuts to BBC services and programmes have been leaked to newspapers in recent weeks.
- These include cuts to 5 Live, Newsnight and the World Service.
- As cuts to BBC Local Radio in England kick in, the BBC wants to expand the broadcast hours of one of its stations in Wales.
Kiteflying is defined as “the act of trying to find out what people’s opinion about something new will be by informally spreading news of it”.
And there has been plenty of that in recent weeks in the lead up to an expected announcement regarding further cuts at BBC News.
Newspaper reports of planned changes at Newsnight have garnered the biggest backlash. The Victoria Derbyshire-fronted show is threatened with the loss of its dedicated journalists and investigate team and a conversion into a pure discussion programme, similar to The Context on BBC News.
Further rumours surround the future of the BBC World Service and Radio 5 Live. Reports of possible cuts here have been met with a more muted response.
The BBC launched a new cost-saving move in April by simulcasting 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell show on the UK feed of BBC News. But despite positive spin at the time, the simulcast hasn’t gone down well with viewers. In the meantime, the BBC has quietly peddled back, reducing the morning simulcast to just one hour. It now ends at 10:00 instead of 11:00. The 10:00 hour now includes a UK-specific segment after 10:30, again undoing some of the reduction in UK-specific content in April.
The change raises questions about how viable an extension of radio on TV to save money would be.
BBC cuts (except in Wales)
As BBC staff, viewers and listeners wait for more news on BBC News, the broadcaster wants to expand BBC Radio Cymru 2.
The current part-time station will be extended from 25 to 61.5 hours per week, subject to an Ofcom competition assessment. This means that BBC Radio Cymru 2 will become a UK Public Service in its own right.
It’s a potentially controversial move in some quarters because at the same time, BBC Local Radio in England is being cut to just 40 hours of broadcasting to each area every week. Local services have also been cut in Northern Ireland. The digital-only Cymru 2 would only expect to attract modest audiences at a time when other outlets and programmes reaching smaller audiences, like Newsnight, face cuts on the basis of their low audience figures.
Marc Thornham