BBC pulls plug on three TV channels

1,000 staff face axe ++ Death knell for long-wave broadcasts ++ Radio 4Extra ditched ++ News services merged ++ BBC4 and CBBC web-only as...

THe BBC is to axe CBBC and BBC4 as traditional TV channels as part of a dramatic savings plan announced yesterday.

Corporation chiefs will also merge its BBC News and World News channels into one 24-hour service.

The corporation announced there would be up to 1,000 fewer people working for its public service arm over the next few years, with major job cuts in the pipeline.

Broadcasting of archive station radio 4extra will also be stopped, bosses revealed, as part of wide-ranging cuts in response to a two-year licence fee freeze. The BBC said BBC4, CBBC and radio 4extra would stop broadcasting ‘after the next few years’.

and it signalled the death knell for

‘Cuts to drama and entertainment’

long-wave radio by saying it will close the platform in the coming years.

The corporation runs one of the main long-wave transmitters in the UK and the signal from it covers most of england and Wales.

The BBC has claimed the new licence fee deal, announced in January, will leave it with a £285million annual funding gap by 2027 and that the moves it announced yesterday will contribute £200million to this annually. it came as Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries issued a ‘legal direction’ to the BBC to ensure at least 25 per cent of staff are from working-class backgrounds as part of its mid-term review.

The BBC said its plans, which include ploughing more money into shows for its iPlayer service, were a ‘blueprint to build a digital-first public service media organisation’.

This includes a potentially controversial commitment to cancel shows popular on traditional TV channels but are ‘not doing enough’ to drive people to its on-demand iPlayer service.

The body also warned it will reduce the volume of programming it commissions for network TV by about 200 hours.

There are expected to be significant cuts to drama and entertainment shows and a surge in repeats. Director-gen eral Tim Davie yesterday told

staff: ‘This is our moment to

build a digital-first BBC. Something genuinely new, a reithian organisation for the digital age, a positive force for the UK and the world. ‘Though broadcast channels will be essential for years to come, we are moving decisively to a largely on-demand world. ‘Too many of our resources are focused on broadcast and not online.’ Mr Davie added that if the BBC did not respond faster to technological changes ‘we will cede too much ground to those who are not driven by public service values’. He said the corporation would be ‘re-allocating’ significant money every year ‘into video that delivers on iPlayer’. But one BBC News insider said staff were ‘livid’ at the plans. ‘Staff who worked all through the pandemic feel that

they do is misunderstood by managers. They feel they have got the worst of all announcements. Cuts are coming but there’s no idea of the scale, in the midst of a cost of living crisis, with people on modest salaries,’ they said.

The BBC also said it would be scrapping regional TV news bulletins for Oxford and Cambridge and as well as regional current affairs show We are england.

as part of plans to close longwave operations, it will stop scheduling separate radio 4 content on this platform.

Two of radio 4’s four daily shipping forecasts are only available on this frequency.

The BBC also said 5 Live on medium-wave will close no later than December 2027. it is understood CBBC will continue on iPlayer with BBC4 expected to be retained for on-demand service. Some of the 1,000 public service arm jobs set to be lost will move to its commercial division. Bosses also plan to reduce World Service licence fee spending by around £30million by the start of 2023/24 financial year.

Yesterday the Government agreed with the BBC a ‘legal direction’ that 25 per cent of staff come from low socio-economic backgrounds by 2027.

it also includes ensuring 60 per cent of radio and 50 per cent of TV programme production spend is outside London by the end of 2027. Miss Dorries said the mid-term review would ‘build on our recent progress to make the BBC more accountable to those who fund it’.

The BBC had set the same 25 per cent staff target. a spokesman said: ‘For clarity, proposed changes to the framework agreement will reflect commitments we have already made.’